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Collection by Ivane Soyombo

The Sky is the Limit

These stilted homes transcend traditional architecture.

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The house was built on piers (save for the lower-level bedroom) so that little of the natural landscape would be disturbed.
The house was built on piers (save for the lower-level bedroom) so that little of the natural landscape would be disturbed.
Julie, James, and Christian enjoy an unexpected bonus of living in a house on stilts—–a pair of swings suspended from the base of the structure. The family often goes for walks on the property, looking for wildlife and playing in the tepee they built in a secluded space in the woods.
Julie, James, and Christian enjoy an unexpected bonus of living in a house on stilts—–a pair of swings suspended from the base of the structure. The family often goes for walks on the property, looking for wildlife and playing in the tepee they built in a secluded space in the woods.
Nine slender steel columns held in place by cross-bracing hold this small weekend house 21 feet in midair. Click here for more stilted living in Japan.
Nine slender steel columns held in place by cross-bracing hold this small weekend house 21 feet in midair. Click here for more stilted living in Japan.
The deck built on the ground level provides ample outdoor space during inclement weather.
The deck built on the ground level provides ample outdoor space during inclement weather.
It’s a fact of physics that hot air rises, and this simple concept is all Maria and Matthew Salenger needed to design a passive cooling system for the backyard pods they use as bedrooms at their house in Tempe, where the average daily temperature is 86 degrees. The light, steel-framed structures float on stilts above the yard, allowing cooler air to circulate underneath. On hotter days when this isn’t enough, operable windows along the roof line and vents in the floors allow hot air to escape out the top and draw the same cooler air up from the lawn. By relying on this energy-efficient system during all but the hottest months (when they run a small air-conditioning unit only in the evenings when they’re home), the couple, who work together as the architecture firm coLAB, has chopped their monthly power bills in half—no small feat in a climate where summertime temperatures can top 115 degrees.
It’s a fact of physics that hot air rises, and this simple concept is all Maria and Matthew Salenger needed to design a passive cooling system for the backyard pods they use as bedrooms at their house in Tempe, where the average daily temperature is 86 degrees. The light, steel-framed structures float on stilts above the yard, allowing cooler air to circulate underneath. On hotter days when this isn’t enough, operable windows along the roof line and vents in the floors allow hot air to escape out the top and draw the same cooler air up from the lawn. By relying on this energy-efficient system during all but the hottest months (when they run a small air-conditioning unit only in the evenings when they’re home), the couple, who work together as the architecture firm coLAB, has chopped their monthly power bills in half—no small feat in a climate where summertime temperatures can top 115 degrees.