Section House
A one-room-deep house stepping down a 27-degree slope.
A-205 · Perspective from the north-east · massing only
- Programme
- Hill residence
- Floor area
- 214 m²
- Height to parapet
- 9.60 m
- Storeys
- 3
- Structural bays
- 4
- Status
- Built · 2024
The slope was too steep to terrace without a retaining wall taller than the house. So the house became the retaining wall — three rooms, each half a level below the last, each holding back the ground behind it.
You enter at the top, at the kitchen, and descend to sleep. The only level floor on the site is the roof.
Rain here arrives sideways. Eaves project 1.4 metres and the gutters are sized for 150 mm an hour.
Team
Ira Menon
Design lead
Devang Shah
Project architect
Sane Associates
Structure
Nilgiri Works
Contractor
Materials
Furthest: Zinc standing-seam roof — 74 km
How it went
- September 2021
Surveyed the slope on foot. Twenty-seven degrees, measured twice.
- January 2022
The house became the retaining wall. Three rooms, three levels.
- July 2022
On site, through one monsoon before the roof went on.
- November 2024
Handover.