Perched high above the coast road at Albecq, this new four-bedroom home occupies one of Guernsey’s most dramatic sites.

The setting does some of the talking. The house does the rest.

This landmark building, elevated more than six metres above the road, sits beside a protected 18th-century monument built during the Napoleonic Wars, when the threat of a French invasion was very real.

And getting the house up there meant first going down.

We excavated around 1,000 tonnes of rock and earth from the headland, digging deep into the site to create the foundations and levels needed to build upwards. Quite literally, we had to dig down in order to go up.

From almost every part of the house, the design is tuned to the coastline. Panoramic views stretch across Cobo and Albecq, with each transition through the three-storey home revealing the sea in a different way.

The tourelle.

At its heart, a glass helical staircase spirals upwards around a circular glass lift, creating a dramatic vertical centrepiece while keeping light and views flowing through all three floors.

And this isn’t a home that takes itself too seriously.

Behind the architecture is all the good stuff: a home cinema, health suite, bar and generous entertainment spaces designed for long evenings, weekends with friends and the sort of parties that make having a house on the coast feel like a very good idea.

The result is a home shaped by its setting rather than imposed upon it.

Some houses have a view.

This one is designed around it.

(Photos by Sarah Froome Photography)

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