Belmont House

Much of the scheme for this house grows from the site, as it is a somewhat strange one for a home. There is a 9-meter slope from the front road down to the rear garden, and within the property are four separate terraces. While this creates a potentially dramatic impression, it also comes with challenges. If the house stands two stories at Belmont Road, it would seem almost five floors from the base of the garden. Our intention was to craft a design where which one large house would appear as a smaller house sitting on a podium. As an office, we are interested in unusual architectural objects. Belmont presented a perfect opportunity for one: visitors must pass through private spaces to reach the public level, which the client preferred to place at the bottom floor. In order to counter the strangeness of this situation, we designed a large informal stair that tumbles through the very center of the house, from front door to pool deck. This stair is broad enough to include a sitting-room at its landing, and to intersect a tiny secondary stair leading to the kitchen.