Butterfly Roof Meditation Hut
Illinois resident Mary Kalantzis rises every morning with a view worthy of the next world. "I wake up to the vision of the hut everyday," she says. "There's something about the proportions that make it appear heavenly." The hut is the butterfly-roof-adorned tea and meditation structure perched above a pond on their 14 acres in Champaign, Illinois.

Designed by architect Jeffery Poss, the tea hut is the first of what Kalanzis and her husband, Bill Cope, hope to be several sculptural structures on their property, which comprises a forested grove to the east, a former tree farm on the west, and the main house and hut in the middle. Photo by Phillip Kalantzis-Cope.

Inside, a large window opposite the main door frames a view of mature trees. The main interior spaces is the raised platform supporting three tatami mats. "The floor of glossy ebonized birch has the sensation of a deep, still pond," Poss says. "The grass tatami mats become an island within an island." Photo by Phillip Kalantzis-Cope.