Whether to make sloped sites level, prevent flooding or reduce impact on natural surroundings, houses on stilts are being built around the world. Here are eight of the best contemporary examples.
Photography by Leonardo Finotti
House in the Delta by MAPA, Argentina
Raised on stilts to protect from periodic flooding on its riverside site near Buenos Aires, House in the Delta was the first Passivhaus-certified home built in Argentina.
Architectural studio MAPA described the home as “an amphibious house – built high above the ground to coexist with the periodic flooding on the banks of the Paraná Mini”.
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Photography by Nicolás Saieh
Prat House, by ERRE Arquitectos, Chile
Located in Matanzas, Chile, the 128-square-metre Prat House was designed by Raimundo Gutiérrez of ERRE Arquitectos to take advantage of its coastal site.
The entire single-storey seaside house was elevated on steel stilts, with a raised walkway and timber steps providing access.
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Photography by Markus Linderoth
Yngsjö by Johan Sundberg Arkitektur, Sweden
Constructed using predominantly light-coloured timber to help it blend with its surroundings, Yngsjö was built as a retreat from city life for a Swedish family based in London.
Located close to the shores of the Baltic Sea, the house is designed to sit lightly on the site with over half the structure raised on slender steel pillars.
Photo by Del Rio Bani
Casa 144º by Jaime Prous Architects and Pineda & Monedero, Spain
Architecture studios Jaime Prous Architects and Pineda & Monedero raised this metal-clad home on metal stilts above a steeply sloping site to the east of Barcelona.
Created for a retired couple who wanted an escape from the city, Casa 144º is lifted off the ground to minimise its impact on the landscape.
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Photography by Adrien Williams
Residence Chez Léon by Quinzhee Architecture, Canada
Described by its architect as “a contemporary chalet in harmony with its environment”, this cedar-clad residence was raised above a sloped site overlooking the St Lawrence River in Québec.
Quinzhee Architecture designed the 129-square-metre ski house to take advantage of its site and surrounding views.
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Photography by Studio Campo
Hole with the House Around by ElasticoFarm, Italy
The aptly named Hole with the House Around comprises a series of boxy volumes raised on stilts surrounding a central void.
Architecture studio ElasticoFarm designed the structure as an extension to an existing 1970s house surrounded by trees in an Italian park in Cambiano, a town to the southeast of Turin.
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Photography by Ivar Kval
Villa Grieg, by Saunders Architecture, Norway
Saunders Architecture designed this house overlooking a lake in Norway for the descendants of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.
Named Villa Grieg, the house combines a two-bedroom home with a music studio. The sloped music studio sits on the ground floor, with stairs leading up to the raised home that winds around a central void.
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Photography by Jomar Bragança
Casa Açucena by Tetro Arquitetura, Brazil
The majority of this angular, lily-shaped home was raised on stilts to prevent the unnecessary removal of trees from its site in a lush Brazilian forest.
According to the studio, the black stilts that support the house were placed at “random” to emulate how trees grow in a forest.