Aldgate Residence

The brief was a home that sits firmly in its landscape and is built to last for decades, not one that only impresses on the day it is finished.

The house steps down the slope rather than sitting on top of it, so each level follows the contour and opens to the view. The glazed elevations face the late-afternoon light, and the pool draws the lower terrace out into the garden.

Ground conditions in the Hills shaped the footings and structure before anything else. Our note on building on Adelaide’s reactive clay explains why.

Stone grounds the building, in the columns along the elevations and the stacked-stone wall in the living room. Timber lines the ceilings and joinery and forms the floating stair at the centre of the plan. Glass opens the rooms to the garden.

Each junction between stone, timber and glass was drawn and settled before construction began, so nothing was left to be worked out on site.