Three Units Across a 13-Meter Height Difference: How a Sloped-Site House Separates Them While All Still See the Sea

A site that climbs 13 meters up from the street is usually treated first as a problem: how cars arrive, how people walk, how earthwork is handled. The La Joya project published in ArchDaily, designed by Veö estudio and located in Sant'Agostino, offers an approach that treats the height difference itself as the means of organizing the housing, rather than flattening it first and then building.^[1]

The commission for this project was not a single house but three independent units: two small apartments mainly for rental, and one larger residence for the owner's occasional stays. The design did not cram them into one conventional volume but spread them at different heights on the hillside. Each unit thus gains its own place on the site, keeps privacy from the others, and establishes a direct connection with the sea.^[1]

For Shenzhen owners currently looking at sloped, terraced or clearly height-differentiated plots, what is worth thinking through first here is not the form but a more fundamental question: can the height difference be divided into several segments, each carrying a different use relationship. The reason the three units can each stand on their own is that they are placed at different elevations, not separated by partitions on the same floor.

This premise also carries a cost. The more units and the finer the layering, the more complex the organization of vertical circulation, pipe routes, individual entrances and outdoor areas. The project materials only describe the relationship between the dispersed layout and privacy and sea views; they provide no information on structure, cost, construction or post-occupancy performance, so one cannot infer from them that this approach would work equally well on other sites, still less treat it as a scheme that can be copied directly.

If your own plot also has a marked height difference, you can first make a judgment that does not involve form: break family daily life into several relationship groups, such as long-term self-use, occasional returns, and rental to others, then see whether these relationships really need their own separate entrances and outdoor spaces. Layering only makes sense if independence is needed; if several groups actually share the same living and kitchen areas, forcing a split into multiple units only adds corridors and duplicated area.

Privacy here is also not obtained automatically through wall thickness or distance. With the three units at different heights, their sightline relationships change accordingly: the terrace of an upper unit may look down into the courtyard of a lower unit, and the windows of a lower unit may face directly onto the passage of an upper unit. The materials only say that privacy is maintained, without explaining how screening and offsetting are specifically done, so for readers the verifiable action is to draw out the sightline directions at each elevation on their own plot, then judge which spot needs screening and which can be opened up to the view.

The direct connection with the sea is likewise conditional. In sloped-site housing, the positions that can see the sea tend to concentrate on one side or at one height; placing the self-use unit at the elevation with the better view and the rental units at a secondary position is one kind of trade-off; conversely, if the rental units are placed in the most prominent spot, the quiet of the self-use part must be solved another way. La Joya places the larger self-use residence separately from the two small apartments, showing that differences in use can serve as the basis for allocating elevations, but which level goes to whom still depends on what the owner cares about most.

深圳市熹合空间设计有限公司 focuses on pure residential design and design implementation coordination, and does not undertake construction; design coordination cannot replace statutory engineering supervision, structural appraisal or construction warranty. Applied to this kind of height-differentiated housing, this means the idea of layered arrangement must first be grounded in verifiable conditions: the height differences and buildable ranges at each elevation, the way upper and lower units are accessed, and professional judgments on retaining walls and slopes all require corresponding professional basis; ordinary floor plans or renderings cannot alone support demolition, alteration or structural conclusions. Having done residential work is what makes one understand living, and this often shows in first confirming which segment of height difference can carry which kind of daily life, and only then deciding whether to split one residence into several parts.

For most Shenzhen owners, the more realistic scenario is not building three new units but redistributing uses in an existing self-built house with a height difference, a terraced house, or a home with sunken spaces. Here you can first ask three questions: do different users need their own separate entrances and exits; which elevation is better suited for long stays; and do the sightlines between upper and lower levels need screening. Once these three questions are answered clearly, then discuss which level to convert to rental and which to keep for self-use, and the judgment will have a basis.

The value La Joya offers is to turn a steep slope from an obstacle into a reason for layered arrangement, and to let each unit find its own place on the site. It does not prove that this approach suits all slopes, nor does it provide replicable dimensions and methods. What readers can take away is a sequence: first see whether the height difference can be segmented, then see who each segment suits and what privacy and views it needs, and only lastly discuss architectural form.

The publishing institution of the materials is ArchDaily; the project is La Joya; the designer is Veö estudio. The above content is based solely on that project introduction and does not involve completion, inspection or usage outcomes.