03/09/2026
Perched above the landscape, not on top of it 🌿
Our Kelmscott project came to us as a two-storey design from another practice — beautiful on paper, but the site had other plans. After digging into the earthworks, retaining and structural implications, we redesigned the home as a single level, elevated on posts to work with the natural fall of the land instead of cutting into it.
The result? The same brief, the same lifestyle the clients wanted — for roughly $500K less.
Site works are one of the most overlooked parts of the design process, and one of the biggest drivers of budget blowouts. The land always has the final say, and the earlier you bring the right consultants to the table, the more room you have to design smart instead of paying to fix problems later.
This is why we push for early engagement on every project — a good design team isn’t just drawing pretty elevations, it’s protecting your budget from decisions made before the ground’s even been tested.
With ISMART Building Group