New house in Hillsborough
New build family home in Hillsborough, County Down
This four-bedroom family home was built on a site carved from the front garden of a larger property on a hillside in Hillsborough. The clients bought the plot without planning permission, and we designed the house and secured approval from scratch.
Hillsborough is one of Northern Ireland’s most desirable villages – a pretty, historic settlement in County Down with a strong sense of place. The site is within walking distance of the village.
A site with potential on a Hillsborough hillside
Ironically what makes the house special is the main design constraint – the slope. The land drops away from the original property, which gave us the opportunity to set the new house into the hillside and create something that feels private and grounded rather than exposed.
The design turns inward. A new walled garden sits at the heart of the site, with a retaining wall built into the steepest part of the hill. The main living spaces are orientated towards this sheltered, leafy space rather than the road or the neighbouring property. From inside the house, the garden is the focus. From the front, there are open views across the County Down countryside.
Have a look at another Hillsborough home design project.
New home designed around a walled garden
Most of the house is two-storey, with four bedrooms upstairs and three reception rooms at ground level.
A single-storey cedar-clad living room extends out towards the garden, its lower roofline and warm timber finish distinguishing it from the white render of the main house. One wall is fully glazed to the walled garden.
The effect is a home that reads as two connected volumes rather than a single block.
Interiors with personality
At 2,500 square feet, this is a generous family home, but it doesn’t feel oversized. Every room earns its place.
We also designed all the interiors for this project, from spatial layout through to finishes, fixtures and furnishings. We offer this service when clients want a fully resolved result, where the architecture and the interiors are conceived as one design, rather than handed off to separate teams.
The interiors are confident and far from generic – high ceilings, bold choices and not a hint of beige.
This is a house designed for a family who wanted something with real character, built from the ground up, on a site that demanded an architect who could read the landscape.
Have a look at another Hillsborough home design project.
