The owners requested a house that would accommodate parties of eight to twelve friends and events of fifty or more, while maximizing natural light and openness to surrounding on-site and off-site vegetation. Situated within an old private enclave known for its lush tropical vegetation, the site formerly hosted an at-grade residence well below the current flood elevation. The new design elevates the home to exceed flood regulations and maintains neighborhood requirements for separation and vegetative screening. 

The bold form and hard edges of the house stand in stark contrast with its informal tropical landscape as a foil to each other. The house captures views into the surrounding landscape and boat basin, allowing interior spaces to be defined by their relationship to the exterior views surrounding the house.

Lifting the house provides views for inhabitants that are otherwise not available from ground level and allows the landscape to pass beneath the house for a more expansive landscape experience where the front, side, and rear yard are visible to each other, and the house overhead defines each from the other. 

The raised lawn terrace sweeps beneath the elevated house, visually joining the different yard areas into one larger ground plane expression. For large events, the extension of the terrace into the front yard serves as a forecourt for outdoor functions, with passage beneath the house as the threshold/entry into the open rear yard area where events occur.

The ground-level entry features a steel stair as a closed form suspended in the entry space from above. The closed form of the stair conceals the openness to the light-filled spaces above that one experiences in the stair itself as one rises into the light-filled spaces on the main level.