House in the Hills Adelaide, South Australia home design, Australian modern architecture images

House in the Hills, Adelaide, South Australia

29 July 2025

Architects: James Allen Architect

Location: Adelaide Hills, Adelaide, South Australia

Photos: Christopher Morrison

House in the Hills, Adelaide, Australia

Greenfield commissions are rare. Rarer still are greenfield projects actually located in picturesque green fields.

The House in the Hills is positioned on the gentle slopes of a former cow paddock between Echunga and Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills. The elongated plan of the design is stretched out following the topography of the site, keeping excavations as shallow as possible and allowing almost all of the rooms in the house to enjoy the picture views across the paddock down to the site’s dam.

The clients’ brief for the project was for a four bedroom family house focused on the view and that incorporated textural materials, particularly stone.

With the statement stone garden wall greeting you on arrival, this defines the entry to the house and establishes a private space in an otherwise open landscape. You enter through this wall and via an entry space that quickly turns to living spaces with high pitched ceilings with the view beyond large sliding glass doors.

The stepped interlocking nature of the pavilions increases the house’s access to northly sun in an otherwise easterly orientated plan. External materials include Basket Range sandstone from the Adelaide Hills as well as Australian hardwood board and batten cladding.

The stonework continues inside and is set against hardwearing and unpretentious materials. Polished concrete floors and benchtops, whitewashed plywood joinery and white walls play off against the strong character of the internal stonework.