We’re thinking of buying a building plot that has quite an appreciable slope on it. I’m thinking along the lines of a bungalow with a “basement” garage/workshop/utility room and a deck above the garage entrance on the downhill side.
Searching for examples online (just to show an architect the sort thing I have in mind) but I suspect I’m just using the wrong search terms.
Can anyone help? I think it’s a design more popular in the US.
Tim
Don't underestimate the cost of the civil engineering, spoil removal and building tanked, structural retaining walls.
Hope there are no active springs or water courses that only show up after a lot of heavy rain.
Look at Wellington, NZ.
Most of it is built on the side of a steep hill.
Cheers
Dave R
Been there, done that, but what are these designs called??
Tim
or hitting rock
Split level?
That's what I was going to suggest.
Walk-out basement.
Nope, that covers much more than houses built on a significant slope.
None of ours built like he wants to do are called split level.
None of ours built like that are called that, and that's what matters when looking for pics of those to show the architect.
None of those of ours are called that.
I don't believe that there is a unique name for those.
It wouldn't be hard to use google street view in hilly areas to find houses like that and find the real estate ad for the property; No need for a unique name.
+1
Never mind what its called, what a fabulous project. Wish you the best.
Bunker.
Not tempted to go further in the "earth sheltered" direction with e.g. bedrooms at the back under the slope? I've always fancied the option of a bedroom where silence was guaranteed - and these days it'd be easy to feed a TV with sound & vision for birdsong, weather checks etc.
Better than hitting a 100 foot layer of alluvial sludge and peat.
appreciable
I describe mine as a three storey bungalow. We have garages, workshop, storeroom and boiler room in the basement - level with the drive, living accomodation on the ground floor - level with the back garden, and a study and an additional bedroom in the attic.. In the storms of 2007 we had water rising up through the concrete floor of the garages but nothing since, though the back wall of the garages always looks a bit damp. I'm told that during construction they found a spring! It is useful to have direct access to the under floor area of the ground floor. Best of luck.
slightly better... you could use a raft
When I worked for an Electricity Board, they bought an empty hillside site to build a new depot. They ended up having to build it on multiple
100ft deep piles to stabilize it. They found that not only was the site very slowly sliding down the hill, but, at a different level, it was also rotating.
I would have thought that is what architects do, ask them
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