When “Florida” is brought up, the mind immediately goes to Palm trees, vibrant flowers, tropical plants, but that’s not the real natural Florida. This client wanted to let the nature and native plants run wild, and came to us to find an intervention that doesn’t take away from the landscape, but is enhanced by it. This meant we took a slightly different approach. Instead of designing a home, and adding thoughtful landscaping to it after a design was established, we wanted the native scrub to dictate our design.
We raised the home to allow the most amount of green space to remain, which meant only 1/3 of the massing was touching the ground, with the other 2/3 floating above as a large horizontal plane. This makes it seem like the house is hovering above the native landscaping of scrub pines, tall grasses, and a variety of oaks.
An additional reason for raising the bulk of the house, including all living spaces, up a level, was for its low lying elevation and proximity to the water. The average site elevation is a shocking 3’ above sea level, but being on a lagoon, with an inlet to access the ocean very close by, the tides are a huge factor, and the area is known for flooding after any storm comes through.
