This beautiful brutalist home in Miami is elevated on stilts to fight against rising sea levels

Designed by Rene Gonzalez, this extraordinary brutalist home was designed as a vacation home for a client living in a colder climate for the majority of the year. Deemed, the Prairie Residence, the home was created to tackle the serious issue of rising sea levels in Miami. The threat of sea-level rise has grown considerably in Miami in recent years, hence the city is immensely focusing on elevating streets and imposing rules that require private properties to be placed at a higher ground. This home was elevated on stilts and is inspired by the mangrove forests whose roots allow the easy flow of water. These measures are intended to protect the house from flooding.

Designer: Rene Gonzalez

By adding gardens, parking spaces, and storage at the ground level, the architect has ensured that the living areas are on a higher level, hence providing protection to the residents during floods and hurricanes, while also offering some privacy from the usual hustle and bustle of the city. In fact, in the early 1800s, The Florida Seminole Indians used similar techniques to elevate their Chickee huts, to withstand wet ground, and vermins. Almost a century later, in the 1930s and ’40s, a community of elevated homes called Stiltsville was built over the water in Miami’s Biscayne Bay. These were all used as sources of inspiration for the Prairie Residence, and it’s really interesting to see how Gonzalez merged traditional techniques with modern-day living.

The interiors of the home are raw, brutalist, and stunning. It’s a sprawling and impressive space featuring polished concrete floors. The raised living space floats over a sculptural garden of tropical vegetation, which not only provides drainage but functions as a natural element that is ever-changing depending on the level of water. Floor-to-ceiling windows are further utilized to create a mesmerizing indoor-outdoor connection.

The kitchen has a rather minimal and clean aesthetic, as it’s been completely clad in reflective metal panels. This creates an interesting contrast against the rather concrete vibe of the rest of the home. The main bedroom is double-height and boasts built-in concrete furniture and intricate recessed wall detailing.

A long lap pool surrounded by lush greenery forms a charming backyard space. It’s a private section. You can access the inside of the home through a grated metal catwalk, which serves as a subtle connection between the indoors and the outdoors.

The home is a one-of-a-kind specimen with its tilted concrete walls, hovering aura, and abundance of organic vegetation. Light filters into the home generously at all times of the day, and the elevated living area functions as a rather private oasis in the city of Miami.

The post This beautiful brutalist home in Miami is elevated on stilts to fight against rising sea levels first appeared on Yanko Design.

This A-shaped wooden studio is built using the Bahareque method and Ecuador’s local resources!

I wish I was an architect so like David Guambo I could also build myself a cozy, wooden studio! The architecture student made Kusy Kawsay, a small hut-like housing that rests on stilts in hilly rural Ecuador with a straw roof and wood framing. Kusy Kawsay means ‘passionate life’ in Kichwa (a dialect of Quechua, a language used in the Andean region), and the tiny house reflects it wonderfully.

Guambo studies architecture at Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica (UTI) in Ambato, Ecuador and like most students, he just wanted a space for him to do projects while listening to loud music – that is how this tiny studio was born! To build his dream focus pod, he worked under the guidance of Al Borde, a local architecture studio that successfully completed the renovation of a deteriorated 18th-century house (!) in Ecuador. The main purpose was to be able to play loud music without disturbing the neighbors so Guambo used a traditional construction method known as ‘Bahareque’, a building system that involves weaving sticks and mud to construct compact walls, to make it sound-proof. Even though the exterior reflects the traditional design technique, the full glass window gives it a modern touch.

The hut has a gabled roof that has been layered with grassy straw. The walls pack dried mud tightly between wood framing to make it sturdy. One of the most beautiful features is the whimsical triangular window in the front of the studio that allows plenty of sunlight in while giving you a view of the natural landscape. The crisscrossing wood beams turn it into a studio on stilts and there are cut-up wood logs form several rows of bench seating underneath the unit where passerby can sit in the shade for rest. The interiors are simple yet warm, the roof structure is exposed and the floors are covered with wooden planks. It is furnished with a minimal wooden desk that is aptly placed in front of the large window along with a chair, the set is crafted from leftover logs.

“I’m making a study room, with wood, with straw, and everyone made fun of me because I am constructing with a traditional system. This is because we don’t value what we have, they prefer to do foreign things, thinking that they will save money. But what I believe they don’t know is that you can reinterpret with the things we already have, to do new things, you have to change the mentality of people with this project that I’ve done,” says the resourceful, wise, young designer and we agree – good design doesn’t have to be expensive or hi-tech!

Designer: David Guambo

Standing tall!

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You tend to associate stilts with entertainers, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Stilts have feelings too! They deserve a little respect. After all, they’re just the High Heel’s elder sibling.

Designers Marion Decroix and Pierre-César Lafaysse decided it would be nice to give stilts a much needed makeover. The Stilts 2.0 are a sleek blend of Wood and Steel. Much more classy and definitely more reliable!

Designers: Marion Decroix and Pierre-César Lafaysse

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