Designed by client and architect Jack Woolley, the three-storey family home is situated at the dead end of a narrow lane in Dean Village. 

Confronted by a slope looming over the Water of Leith, limited access and a historic stone retaining wall at its foot, the home is accessible through a pedestrian link bridge at the top floor and cascades down the embankment across three different levels. 

Because none of the walls or facades aligned between floors, the building needed an effective structural frame to transfer weight to offset levels. 

The consultancy designed a custom steel frame with timber kit, while trying to accommodate intricate geometry, overhangs and secluded terraces.

But the main engineering obstacle was underneath the surface. To support the structure without putting pressure on the historic retaining wall underneath, Will Rudd created a reinforced concrete piled raft system, with raking rock anchors being drilled into the hillside to stabilise the slope and solidify the lateral foundation of the building. 

Stuart Fleming, director at Will Rudd and lead structural engineer, said: “This site offered few clues at the start as to how anything could be built there.

“It was effectively a patch of overgrown, steep scrubland at the end of a narrow lane. 

“Making the design a reality meant engineering from the ground up - not just designing the permanent support but mapping out every single step of how machinery could safely operate on the slope.”

Fleming added: “By using the building’s concrete raft as its own temporary construction platform, we unlocked a site that many thought was unbuildable.”

Jack Woolley, client and architect, said: ” We self-built the house as a family, with my grown-up children helping with its construction during breaks from their studies.”