The new 5-bedroom home, set within a beautiful orchard, has been designed to meet the needs of the recently wheelchair bound client to create a home that allows her to live independently. The design celebrates the beautiful setting and builds into the landscape itself. The shape of the building responds to the complex geometry of the topography and the site boundary and works with the slope of the site to reduce the visual impact to the surrounding area. The house is cut away to direct views across the garden and away from the former home, creating sheltered living spaces and establishing a clear entrance. A privately accessed guest annex is located to the south of the site. Drawing on the site’s proximity to adjacent historic brickworks, the design rises from the ground in heavy earth tone brick. Chamfers and deep reveals express the depth and solidity of the ground floor, which houses the living spaces. A lightweight slatted timber-clad box, resting on the semi-submerged ground floor plinth, contains the bedrooms and echoes the surrounding orchard. This ‘box’ emerges from the trees with gaps that open in the slatted timber to reveal windows on the west façade, while to the east the timber continues over the windows creating views to the woods. The breaks in the timber slats increase as they approach the window openings, creating a rhythmic pattern that mimics breaks in the trees across the site. Spaces have been designed to offer moments of delight for the whole family. Low windows allow for views into the orchard garden whether standing or seated while seating in the hydrotherapy pool creates a restful space to enjoy views out to the trees at the north of the site. The new building is fully accessible with a lift and provides facilities for the specialist care required by the client including a physiotherapy pool, gym and carer’s suite.