The place

A new family home designed by John Pawson on a steeply sloping, terraced hillside overlooking the town of Merano with dramatic views down the Adige valley.

The brief

The precipitous nature of the site required careful consideration both to help seat the building comfortably and provide a number of modulated garden and courtyard spaces to serve a range of family activities. Planting was required to ground the building within the surrounding vineyards and woodland, provide moments of beauty and delight and supply fruit, vegetables and herbs for the kitchen.

The design

Working closely with John Pawson we developed a minimal, finely crafted design language for the hard landscaping which ties seamlessly with the architecture. Simple internal courtyard spaces are planted with single specimen trees of fine form. Bold topiary forms help to modulate changes in level and provide graphic punctuation. Ornamental plantings are soft and diaphanous in shades of white, yellow and blue, and range across the various microclimates on site from woodland to exposed Mediterranean. The productive garden features a wide variety of herbs and fruit trees including fig, pomegranate, mulberry and Morello cherry. New terrace walls above the house allow for ease of access to the vineyards above and the woodland beyond.