i.
Narrow sites
Width is a constraint; character is not. Careful zoning, borrowed light, dormers and voids let a slim frontage arrive with real presence - without the corridor-and-garage sameness narrow blocks usually get.
Your land
Great design begins with the land beneath it.
Level · Narrow · Corner · Sloping
The character of your land is not an obstacle.
It is the beginning of the design.
Most of the industry prefers flat, easy blocks. Storybook starts from the opposite conviction - the fall, the trees and the outlooks of your site shape the home from the first sketch.
The Storybook specialty
Sculpted to the slope, never cut into it.
Around 60% of Storybook's work is on sloping land. Where others cut, fill and retain, split-level architecture steps the home down the natural fall - preserving the topsoil, the vegetation and the views the slope gives you.
What the slope earns you
- Street appeal that works with the gradient, not against it
- Living areas and decks positioned for the views
- Split-level interiors that make the fall a feature
- Less excavation, soil removal and engineered retaining
How a sloping design is resolved
- i A 3D computer model of your site is built from a professional feature survey.
- ii Regulations and constraints are analysed - driveway access, setbacks, height limits, neighbour privacy and overshadowing, existing vegetation.
- iii A second 3D model establishes the feasible building envelope within permit requirements.
- iv Design solutions are composed within the envelope - appearance, function and cost together.
- v Split-level and multi-level artistry turns the gradient into the most interesting thing about the home.
Every kind of block
Whatever the land, there is a design answer
ii.
Corner blocks
A corner home is seen in the round, so Storybook composes both elevations - entries, gables and garden walls that address each street rather than turning a blank flank to one of them.
iii.
Level land
Easy ground makes composition matter more, not less. Gardens, verandas and cathedral volumes organise the plan so the home feels grown from the site rather than placed on it.
iv.
Knockdown rebuild
You already know the light, the neighbours and the trees you'd never give up. A knockdown rebuild lets the new design answer the block precisely - keeping the street you love and replacing the house that fights it.
v.
Haven't bought land yet?
Choosing land is a design decision - fall, orientation, access and overlays all shape what your budget can buy. Talk to Storybook before you sign and the block you choose will help the home you want, instead of taxing it.
