Set within the Anglesey AONB, Menai House is a proposal for a 13,500sqft new-build contemporary house to replace an poorly performing existing property overlooking the incredible views of the Menai Strait and mountains beyond. To minimise the impact on the rural landscape, our design is conceived as a habitable stratum – a contemporary layer woven into the timeline of the existing rock. By embedding the building into the hillside and landscape, we anchor the architecture into the earth while projecting the living spaces toward the unencumbered views and distant hills. The result is a dialogue between the raw, ancient texture of the geology, and the needs of sleek modern shelter, framing the vastness of the water and mountains through a lens of absolute tranquility.