Designed in response to the serious challenge of sea-level rises, the Prairie Avenue Residence is elevated on stilts, acknowledging traditional precedents while adapting to contemporary living in harmony with the changing environment. Like the indigenous tropical and subtropical Mangrove forests in tidal areas, which protect coastal zones from erosion, storm surge and hurricanes, the house touches the ground very lightly. With gardens, and areas for parking and storage at the ground level, raised living areas provide safety for the inhabitants during hurricanes and flooding, and contribute to the sensation of being removed from the activity of the surrounding neighborhood.
A vacation home for a client living in a colder climate, it has an entwined relationship to the tropical landscape. Elevated living areas hover over a sculptural garden of tropical vegetation, which provides drainage and is a changing, organic element depending on the fluctuating levels of the water below. Arriving at the top of a retractable bronze stair, one is on axis with a long lap pool. Interiors are accessed through grated metal catwalks that further emphasize the delicate connection between the ground and the living spaces. Surrounded with glass along its edges, tilted concrete walls appear to float, allowing light to spill into the house and creating ambiguous spatial conditions, providing the sensation of being inside a sequence of floating planes elevated from the ground and oriented to the sky.