Sloping Block Home · Investor Build · Full gallery live next month

Gordon Park was built as an investment, not a family home — and that shifts a few of the decisions you make along the way.

The client came to us with plans already attached to the block. Part of what this project ended up proving was how much a genuinely well-considered plan matters before a single brick goes down — and what happens when one hasn't been thought through properly for the site it's sitting on.

The block falls away sharply, so instead of forcing a standard footprint onto it, we set the home up on stumps. That single decision did two things: it opened up secure, usable storage underneath the house, and it changed what was possible with the pool. Rather than digging in-ground into a difficult grade, we placed it on a ground-level slab — which cut cost and gave both the pool and the deck a clear line of sight out over the block that an in-ground pool tucked against the slope never would have had.

Being narrow and long, the block also asked for real trade-offs down the sides of the home. Space that would've been straightforward on a square block took genuine planning here. Gordon Park isn't a home that pretends the block was easy. It's one that was built to work with it.