Atotxa Erreka

The change in level was the site’s most visible condition. Three existing platforms resolved the topography, but still needed a relationship capable of turning them into one landscape. The design begins with that structure and refines it: each terrace offers a different way to spend time, while paths, views and planting bind the whole together.

Contemporary geometry brings clarity without hardening the place. Timber, weathering steel and quiet surfaces accompany the house; between them, planting spills across the edges and allows the architecture to feel closer as the seasons pass.

The slide does not appear as an object added to the garden. It is integrated into the slope, turning the descent between terraces into part of the experience. For the children it is an immediate and joyful route; for the design it is a line that reveals the level change and turns it into movement.

An underground water tank is planned beneath it. When play no longer belongs to everyday life, this infrastructure will allow the route to become a recirculating water feature. Water will be able to travel down the slope and give the garden another presence without remaking what has already been built.

A family garden changes because the family changes. The project therefore does not freeze a single way of using it. Places to sit, open lawn, benches and planting create a landscape that works now while remaining ready to find other rhythms with time.

Naturalistic planting responds to Gipuzkoa’s humid climate, the orientation and the conditions of each terrace. Species are chosen for diversity, seasonal continuity and reasonable care: a contemporary garden understood not as a fixed image, but as a living community.

The project is at design stage. Professional visualisations make it possible to understand the scale of each level, the relationship between slide and planting, and the character of materials before the proposal is finalised and construction is costed.

This clarity makes calmer decisions possible and reduces improvisation during construction. Designing with precision is not an unnecessary cost: it protects the investment and allows every element to make sense on the first day and many years later.