A concept for elevated, low-maintenance living above the lake

Some sites ask for a home that does more with less. This one, a steeply sloping block above the lake, asked for exactly that.

This concept was created for an executive couple whose lives move fast: demanding careers, plenty of travel, not a lot of spare time. What they wanted wasn't a big house to fill and maintain. They wanted a considered one. A home that would feel effortless the moment they walked back in the door, and easy to leave behind for weeks at a time without a second thought.

A footprint made for two

Rather than start from a standard floor plan, our design team worked backwards from how this couple actually live: as a pair, often working, often travelling, and wanting real quality in the time they do spend at home. The result is a single, linear plan that runs along the contour of the site, open living, dining and kitchen at one end, bedrooms at the other, with nothing spare in between. Compact in form, but precisely fitted to the life it's designed for.

Touching the earth lightly

The site drops away steeply toward the water, so the home is lifted on slender piles rather than cut into the hillside. It's a light touch on a beautiful piece of land, preserving the natural slope and its landscaping rather than fighting it. The space this creates underneath isn't wasted either; it's put to work for water storage, parking and a hot tub tucked into the hillside, all folded quietly beneath the living spaces above.

A place to work, then properly switch off

Working from home mattered here, but so did being able to leave it behind at the end of the day. A dedicated office nook sits just off the entry hallway, opening onto its own private deck through a sliding door. Closed, it's a quiet, self-contained space to focus. Open, the deck and the wider lake views become part of the room. It's a small architectural move that solves a real everyday tension for a working couple.

Built to perform as beautifully as it looks

This concept is being designed to Passivehaus Standard from the outset, not layered on afterwards. As a Certified Passive House Designer, Tony has built high-performance thinking into the plan, the orientation and the building envelope, so the finished home will be comfortable, energy-efficient and genuinely low-maintenance to run and live in, exactly what this couple were after when they said they wanted the highest quality home achievable within their budget.

Once complete, the home will sit within a new landscape of exotic and native planting, chosen to soften the building into its site while keeping those lake views wide open from every main room.

This concept is still finding its final form, but it captures exactly the kind of thinking behind every home we design: a considered response to a client's life, their site, and how they actually want to live. Fancy a chat about your own block? Tony's always keen to have a look.