Stacked Terraces

A steeply falling coastal site, spectacular and nearly unbuildable, needed a house that could hold the cliff without dominating it. The clients wanted every principal room to face the ocean directly, which on a slope this severe meant thinking in section before plan.

The house is five terraces cut into the cliff, each a full-width room stepping down the fall of the land, each with its own outdoor platform reaching toward the water. From the approach road at the top, only the entry terrace is visible — the rest of the house is invisible until you are inside it, descending toward the sea.

Each terrace is a concrete tray anchored back into the hillside, so the structure resists the slope rather than perching on it. The stepped section means every roof is the terrace of the room above, and the whole composition reads from the water as a set of horizontal ledges that echo the rock strata around them.

Weather on this coast is punishing, so the palette is deliberately narrow and durable: concrete, glass, and marine-grade steel, detailed to weather rather than to stay pristine.