Hilltop House is what happens when a love of mountains and cars is fully realized. Set into a green hillside, the home is built around a three-car garage equipped with a lift that’s visible from the main living spaces. Anchored by a collection of classic German cars, the space is designed for tuning and daily use, where passion, landscape, and function come together to create a true dream garage.
ARCHITECTURE
Hilltop House: Love of Mountains and Cars Shapes this Garage
Architect: mode:lina
Location: Poznań, Poland | Completed 2023
Photographer: Patryk Lewiński
Hilltop House begins with a clear vision: build a home where a love of mountains and cars can fully come together.
Set into a green hillside, the project is shaped around a garage designed for real use. A three-car setup, complete with a lift, anchors the home and reflects the owners’ deep involvement in car tuning and hands-on work. This isn’t a secondary space or a simple place to park. It’s the foundation of the entire design.
And it’s not hidden away. The garage remains visible from the kitchen and main living areas through a glazed enclosure, keeping the cars in constant view and reinforcing just how central they are to everyday life.
It’s the kind of thinking that shows up across many of our Carchitecture features, where the garage is treated as essential, not optional.
A Garage Built into the Landscape
Rather than placing the garage alongside the home, Hilltop House integrates it directly into the hillside. Similar to other projects where the architecture is shaped by its surroundings, the garage becomes part of the land itself rather than something applied to it.
The structure wraps over the garage, concealing technical spaces and workspace beneath a sloping green form. Above it, the home rises as a more intimate volume, echoing the feel of a mountain retreat while maintaining a strong connection to the terrain below.
This move does more than solve for space. It ties the garage directly to the landscape, making it part of the environment rather than something separate from it. It’s a move that turns the garage into more than just a functional space, positioning it as the starting point of what many would consider a dream garage.
Designed for Car Tuning and Use
From the start, the garage was one of the defining requirements of the project.
And at its core, this is a garage built for people who know their cars.
The setup centers around a three-car layout with a lift anchoring the space, giving full access to a collection rooted in classic German metal. A BMW sits elevated above a Mercedes W124, while a modified Volkswagen Golf holds the foreground, low, wide, and clearly dialed in.
This isn’t about static storage. It’s about staying connected to the cars.
The lift isn’t just there to stack vehicles. It’s there to make the garage functional in the way enthusiasts care about, whether that’s maintenance, dialing in suspension, or simply getting under the car to understand how it all comes together. It’s the kind of setup you find in garages designed for real use with lifts, where things are always being adjusted, refined, and improved.
Overhead, HexGlow LED lighting brings a more intentional feel to the space. It throws clean, even light across the cars, pulling out body lines, paint, and detail in a way that feels closer to a studio than a typical garage.
Everything about the layout supports movement and usability. Cars can be accessed, repositioned, and worked on without friction. Tools are close. Space is deliberate.
This isn’t a garage built to be looked at. It’s built to be used.
Architecture Shaped by Passion
The broader design reflects the same intent.
Simple geometric forms, natural materials, and a restrained palette allow the home to sit comfortably within its surroundings. Wood, concrete, and metal create contrast while maintaining a cohesive relationship with the landscape.
Inside, large openings bring in light and connect the interior to the outside, while the visual connection to the garage reinforces the idea that cars are part of the home’s identity, not separate from it.
Living Above the Garage
At Hilltop House, the relationship between garage and home is direct.
The garage supports the lifestyle below, while the living spaces above provide a place to step back without losing that connection. The result is a home where passion and practicality exist side by side, shaped by both the landscape and the cars that define it.
A Dream Garage Realized
Hilltop House brings together everything the owners set out to achieve.
A connection to the mountains. A garage built for real work. And a home that supports both without compromise.
For anyone who has ever imagined a space where cars and lifestyle come together seamlessly, this is exactly that. A dream garage, fully realized.
Architect
