Some believe the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were artificial mountains, appearing like lush, hanging gardens from a distance. Others think they were stepped terraces built around a palace. Was one of the wonders of the ancient world a myth or reality—a building or a landscape?

Stockholm faces a growing housing need. But since urban sprawl is unsustainable, we must accommodate more people on less land—in short, we need to densify. However, in doing so, we often build over flat, accessible green spaces. These areas are essential for public well-being, especially for children, who need space to move and nature to be in. To address this, we must look beyond building over these flat green areas and parks, and instead turn our focus to underused or previously overlooked plots that help create a greener city, not a greyer one.

At the same time, our relationship with housing is changing. People are spending more time at home, which has fueled a growing desire for detached houses with gardens—a way of living that uses the most land, accommodates the fewest people, while becoming increasingly unaffordable for most.

This tension—between the desire for spacious, garden-like homes and the need to densify demands alternative solutions. 

We believe one key typology is being overlooked, particularly in Sweden: namely, the stepped terraced house. It offers a middle ground—combining density with some benefits of single-family homes, where the terrace extends the home similar to a garden. And this typology is in many cases well suited for plots we have previously disregarded. For this reason, this project is an investigation into the stepped terraced house and its potential in Stockholm today.