Hikers Find House Built Into Hillside — Then They Take a Look Inside

The Hidden Courtyard

The courtyard was the space Ben had not expected. A glass door opened from the workshop into a square of open air surrounded on three sides by stone and glass. The fourth side rose into the hillside. Ferns, moss, and shade-loving plants covered the wall. Rainwater disappeared through a bed of gravel in the center. Above them was nothing but open sky.

The courtyard solved several problems. It brought daylight into rooms that sat too far from the main windows. It created cross-ventilation in warm weather. It also gave Martin a sheltered outdoor space when the wind swept across the front of the hill. On calm days, he ate lunch there. In rain, he sometimes leaves the door open just to hear it.

Standing in the courtyard changed Ben’s idea of the whole house. He had pictured a long concrete tunnel buried beneath grass. Instead, the building had been broken into pockets of light. Windows faced the valley. Rooflights opened upward. The courtyard cut into the center. Even the deepest rooms had some connection to the outside. The house was not trying to escape the landscape. Every part of it had been arranged around finding a different way to see it.