Images: Craig Steely Architecture.
This proposal for a house in California, USA , takes its inspiration from the humble ski lift. Set on a steeply sloping site surrounded by vegetation, the lounge and terrace areas appear to soar into the air thanks to a dramatic cantilever and the site's topography.
Creating foundations on such a site can be expensive, and can interfere with surrounding vegetation. To avoid this,
Craig Steely Architecture, looked to the ski-lift pylon's single principle foundation as their starting proposition. It is from this that the structural tree springs, and the architectural volumes are thus freed from the ground.
In the end however, it is the ride on the ski-lift not the tectonics of its construction that captures the imagination. It is the exhilaration of being out in space without apparent support that is the important thing.
Whilst the architecture may give the illusion it soars, there is no mistaking the effect on the human spirit that breakfast on the flying terrace will have.
