The client requested a home with clever separation between private and public areas in the house. The house’s main volumetric elements were determined both by the program, and by an extremely challenging site. A narrow, steep grade and early soil testing revealed that the land was not fit for residential development with a standard foundation. Due to the soil’s instability, SPF:a was required to root the structure with concrete friction piles dug 90-feet below the surface. The cost of such an activity — not to mention the challenge of staging construction on a 45-degree grade — became the fundamental protagonist of the project’s design.