The existing garden of this house by the sea was a rough diamond: it had splendid views and some majestic pine trees, but the steep topography rendered it an unusable, formless stretch of land. The proposed site strategy was to manipulate the existing terrain in order to create several platforms of leisure, framing the view from multiple lookouts along a zigzagging promenade descending towards the seashore. One of the top priorities was to maintain every pine tree, thus the building process became an act of non-invasive surgery: retaining walls had to avoid damaging trees or the foundations of the existing house. Moreover, the overall design had to blend seamlessly with the surrounding landscape; both garden and swimming pool would be a simple extension of the rocky indented coastline. The small pool is the opposite of an infinity pool. It is conceived as a notch on the rocks, a mere pocket of water, trapped within the confines of the garden’s retaining walls, echoing the great sea which laps against the vertical cliffs just metres away. Materials were crucial for integration in context: limestone retaining walls, black steel balustrades, pine wood decking and the swimming pool’s white render will hopefully make the completed project almost invisible.