A 13-meter slope sets the tone before the plan even begins. Rather than flattening the site, the house steps into it: a compact semi-underground house with two levels, a dark upper volume at street level, and a lower floor that opens straight to the terrace. From the road, the building reads as a black timber box among trees. Move around it, and the mass starts to loosen, breaking into openings and then into a glass volume that pulls the forest into the interior.<\/p>\n
The strongest gesture is not the closed side toward the street, but the long glazed faces turned to the woods. Two-thirds of the elevations are made up of floor-to-ceiling windows, so the rooms do not stop at the glass line. They continue into branches, trunks, and shifting light. The result is a house with forest views that feels cut from the slope and aimed outward at the same time. Inside, the window frames create a sequence of fixed views, then wider openings, then full-height transparency.<\/p>\n
That clarity matters in a compact family home with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, an atelier, storage, and the main cooking, dining, and sitting areas to fit into one contained volume. The plan keeps moving without wasting width. Sightlines cross from one room to another, then out to the trees. Even the more contained spaces remain tied to the same outlook, so the house never turns inward for long. Glass does the work of making a small footprint feel measured rather than tight.<\/p>\n
The upper level sits on the street side as an industrial steel frame construction, insulated with sandwich panels and wrapped in black stained wood. It projects five meters beyond the concrete base, giving the house a clear split between grounded lower level and lifted upper body. The contrast is direct: rough concrete below, dark timber above, and glass cutting through both. Seen from outside, the house holds its shape firmly; seen from inside, that same shape starts to dissolve into reflections and views.<\/p>\n
The lower level was built with prefabricated insulated walls made of two panels of reinforced concrete, leaving the material visible on both sides. That exposed surface gives the semi-underground part of the house a plain, structural character. It is not hidden behind finishes. It becomes part of the room. Because this level opens directly onto a terrace, the concrete floor and walls continue into outdoor space with very little interruption. The indoor-outdoor terrace is not an added feature here; it is the way the lower floor meets the site.<\/p>\n
The material palette stays restrained: wood, concrete, steel, and glass. That choice shapes the atmosphere more than any decorative gesture could. Black timber softens the bigger mass of the upper level. Concrete keeps the lower level legible. Steel draws the edges of the frame, the stair, and the balustrades. In the interior images, these materials are not polished into something precious. They keep their grain, their lines, and their weight. The house uses that directness to connect its rooms to the slope, the trees, and the light.<\/p>\n
Inside, the layout has to handle family life without spreading itself thin. Four bedrooms and two bathrooms sit alongside the atelier and the daily living spaces, all pulled out of a compact volume. The house does not rely on long corridors to do that. Instead, it uses stacked levels, open connections, and framed openings to keep movement short. A staircase, a landing, and a glazed edge can do more here than a broad hallway. The whole plan feels measured by the distance between one window and the next.<\/p>\n
Several images show how the interior works with dark surfaces and warm timber rather than decorative finish. A wall of wood sits beside a glass opening; a steel railing cuts across the view; a table or bench is placed close to the window rather than away from it. These details matter because they show how the rooms are used. The forest remains present even in quiet moments, and the glazing keeps the interior tied to daylight, shadow, and the changing line of the trees outside.<\/p>\n
The lower floor opens directly to the terrace, creating a clear indoor-outdoor terrace relationship at the base of the house. From this level, the terrain reads as a drop, then a view, then a hard edge of concrete meeting open air. The terrace extends the living area without changing its level of detail. You can see that in the way the glazing, the slab, and the exterior opening line up. The room ends where the landscape begins, but the view keeps going.<\/p>\n
This is where the semi-underground house feels most tied to its setting. The buried portion is not hidden from use; it is the one that pushes hardest toward the outside. Light reaches deeper through the large openings, and the terrace becomes a threshold rather than a separate place. The architecture relies on that transition. It lets the lower level hold onto the site while the upper level lifts away from it, making the slope part of the spatial experience instead of a technical obstacle.<\/p>\n
The steel frame construction gives the upper level its sharper profile. It also appears in the interior details, where railings, supports, and window edges draw thin dark lines against the lighter surfaces. In the photos, the stair is one of the clearest examples: open, linear, and set against tall glazing that lets the eye continue through the building. The structure is visible enough to explain how the house is made, but not so dominant that it takes over the rooms.<\/p>\n
That restraint allows the glass volume to stand out when the upper part of the house becomes more transparent toward the trees. The final effect is not a dramatic break between open and closed, but a gradual shift from dense timber and concrete to a lighter, more transparent edge. The house keeps its compact shape, yet the rooms feel connected to the site through glazing, terraces, and the long view to the forest. It is a small building, but one that uses section, material, and transparency with precision.<\/p>\n
Photography: Yannick Milpas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":603637,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"semi-underground house","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Semi-underground House with Forest Views","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"A compact two-level home on a 13-meter slope, with floor-to-ceiling windows, forest views, and wood, concrete, and steel throughout.","_yoast_wpseo_linkdex":"","_yoast_wpseo_content_score":"","content-type":"","_yoast_wpseo_focuskeywords":"","_yoast_wpseo_keywordsynonyms":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":null,"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":""},"hoog_category":[2968,3075,2984],"class_list":["post-1083883","hoog_project","type-hoog_project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","hoog_category-bedroom-ideas","hoog_category-exterior-design","hoog_category-living-room-ideas"],"acf":{"hoog_project_owner":861391,"hoog_contributors":null,"hoog_project_badge":"","hoog_featured_project":false,"hoog_project_video":"","hoog_project_photos":[{"image_file":603637,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603649,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603662,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603652,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603656,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603646,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603640,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603643,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603668,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603674,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603680,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603717,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603711,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603705,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603721,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603724,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603727,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603730,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603687,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603684,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603693,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"},{"image_file":603699,"video_id":"","image_size":"full"}]},"yoast_head":"\n