Mr. Hoan’s Hanging Garden

The house sits in a coastal city framed by sea and mountains. The client wanted a large home with a large garden, and the answer was a single roof that works as a hanging garden, planted with trees and shrubs.

Local rules require nearly half of the roof to be sloped and covered in grey or orange tiles. To meet the rule while keeping as much green as possible, the roof is split into parallel bands, planted and tiled in turn.

The bands also order the plan. Living, dining and bedrooms sit under the tiled strips, while bathrooms, storage and circulation sit under the planted ones, where the deep soil limits the ceiling height. A void and three patios cut through the bands to bring in light and air.

The house is one of the latest in the House for Trees series. Its roof reaches beyond the scale of a private home and reads more like a pocket park open to the neighbours. Gently sloped, the roof landscape lines up with the mountains around it, and in the shade of its trees the family lives surrounded by green.