House with a View in Hinterbrühl by Caramel Architekten
House with a View in Hinterbrühl steps down the hillside above Hinterbrühl, Austria, giving a clear vantage over forest and valley. Caramel Architekten shapes the house as a stacked sequence of terraces, glazed rooms, and circulation routes that follow the terrain. Across its levels, the project reads as a precise response to slope and view rather than a single object on the land.
Morning light runs along the hillside, catching concrete edges and the warm sheen of a brown-beige facade before slipping through deep panes of glass. From the upper terraces, forest and valley read as one wide band of green that holds the house in a quiet, constant frame.
Set above the town, this multi-level house in Hinterbrühl works with the steep site instead of cutting into it. Caramel Architekten arranges the rooms as a vertical sequence of everyday rituals, from arrival and guest stays to retreat and shared living. The project concentrates on how the hillside, light, and long views shape circulation and daily rhythms rather than treating landscape as a distant backdrop.
On the lowest level, arrival tucks into the slope with two covered parking bays, a garage, and the main entrance next to service and utility rooms. A guest room sits nearby, giving visitors immediate access without sending them through the private upper floors. This base level acts as a hinge between street and garden, absorbing the more practical tasks so the upper levels stay focused on outlook and quiet.
Stair Tracing The Hill
From the entrance, a single-flight staircase climbs straight through the house, holding a clear line from the lowest to the highest level. The stair runs beside a continuous glazed strip that follows the fall of the terrain, so each landing catches a slightly different angle of forest and sky. Parallel to it, an external stair tracks the same route outside, separated only by glazing, so interior movement always mirrors an outdoor path just beyond the glass. That pairing lets garden and rooms interact on every floor, turning a potentially sharp grade into a legible, walkable experience.
Bedrooms In The Slope
Above the entrance level, the bedrooms and private retreats sit partly embedded in the hillside for strong privacy and thermal comfort. The land banks their rear walls, while openings focus outward toward the forest and valley, cutting out unnecessary distractions. The master bedroom extends onto a generous terrace that looks straight into the trees of Hinterbrühl, giving the first step out of bed the same long view as the shared terrace above.
Living Between Valley And Pool
At the top, the main living level opens in two directions at once, with terraces facing both the valley and the uphill side. Cooking, dining, and living run together as one continuous floor, so movement between table, hearth, and outdoor edge stays loose and easy. A suspended round open fireplace hangs at the hinge point, acting as a visible marker between kitchen–dining and the more relaxed living area. Toward the hillside, a sheltered terrace links directly to a south-facing infinity pool, where the waterline meets the horizon of surrounding hills in one clean sweep.
Material Calm In The Landscape
Across all levels, the palette leans on exposed concrete, terrazzo, and polished concrete, cut by the warm brown-beige tone of the aluminum facade. Hard surfaces pick up changes in light through the day, moving from cool shadow near the slope to a softer glow along sunlit terraces. Almost every room keeps a direct relationship to the outdoors, whether through broad glazing toward the valley or more intimate views into the pine forest beside the shed roof lights. An elevator shaft, already prepared but currently used as storage, quietly anticipates future needs without disturbing this direct bond between hillside and daily life.
By night, the house reads as a stack of clear volumes threaded by the internal stair and its external twin, both tracing the grade through light and glass. Terraces deepen the connection to garden and distant hills, so time outside folds naturally into time indoors. The result holds close to the slope, letting the hillside set the rhythm while the house frames the view.
Photography by Hertha Hurnaus
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