Case study · Cambridge
Two terraces the slope never wanted you to have.
Brief: 'We can't use any of it.' A 340 m² section falling 2.1 metres front to back, grass surviving on optimism. The answer: hold the land with schist, then give every flat metre a job.
- Section
- 340 m²
- Fall, front to back
- 2.1 m
- Build
- 9 weeks
- Contract value
- NZ$96k
Before & after
Same camera position, one year apart.
Through the year
A garden has four openings.
Switch the season — the terraces, deciduous kōwhai and lighting hold the composition through all of them.
Season
A live build would drive this panel from the planting plan's own species data — bloom times, autumn colour and winter structure.
The build
What the nine weeks held.
Weeks 1–2
Hold the land
Two schist walls — 1.4 m and 0.8 m — with coil drainage and geotextile. The mason sorted stone on site for two days before laying a single block.
Weeks 3–4
Levels & basecourse
Terraces built to 1:70 falls toward hidden drainage. The trampoline void became a plunge-level lawn edge.
Weeks 5–6
Deck & pergola
Spotted gum deck cantilevering one step off the sliding door, pergola posts offset to frame — not block — the view.
Weeks 7–9
Planting & light
240 natives in, 24V lighting wired, fire bowl set on its own slab. Two maintenance visits scheduled before handover was even discussed.
A note on truth
Concept case study.
Cambridge Terrace Garden is a fictional demonstration by 188 Website Studio — the section, the family and the numbers are invented. The before/after and season interactions behave exactly as they would on a live studio site.