# A house that is mostly roof
Author: Hana Sato
Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/
Published: 2026-08-29
Category: Houses
Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/houses/
Meta Title: A house that is mostly roof · Folio
Meta Description: A single-storey house in the Welsh hills where the roof does the work of walls, and the walls barely exist.
Tags: roofs, rural, slate, timber
Tag URLs: roofs (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/roofs/), rural (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/rural/), slate (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/slate/), timber (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/timber/)
URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/a-house-that-is-mostly-roof/

![A timber house on a hillside under a wide roof](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1759435530019-10b2c9f0f315?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw2fHxtb2Rlcm4lMjBob3VzZSUyMGhpbGxzaWRlfGVufDF8MHx8fDE3ODg2MzQ3OTd8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop)The roof reaches almost to the ground on the weather side.

The brief was two words: keep dry. The site is a shelf on a hillside that takes the rain from the west for most of the year, and the house answers it with a roof that starts at the ridge and does not stop until it is a metre off the ground.

## What the roof does

- It is the weather wall. The west side has no wall to speak of, only roof.
- It is the porch. The eaves are deep enough to leave boots under.
- It is the room. Inside, the ceiling follows the pitch and the house is one tall space with a sleeping loft at the high end.

## What the walls do

Not much, and that is the point. Glazed to the valley on the east, blank to the lane on the north, and a single door in the south gable. The structure is in the roof; the walls are infill.

> A house is a roof with somewhere to stand under it. Everything else is negotiable.

## Materials

Slate on the roof, which is what the hill is made of. Larch inside, left to grey. A concrete floor that holds the day's heat into the evening. Nothing that needs painting.


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