Casa Flotanta is a project designed by Studio Saxe and is located in Puntarenas, Costa Rica.

“The Gooden-Nahome family wanted to create their family home on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica and found an incredible site overlooking the ocean. The biggest constraint we encountered was that the site was predominantly on a very steep slope, and the view of the ocean was captured only at the mid-upper portion of the site. We saw this not as a negative aspect but rather saw an opportunity of exploring together an architecture that was appropriate for this kind of conditions. Together we explored possibilities of creating large retaining walls and cutting back the soil in order to place the house, a technique used by most houses around the area.
Ultimately, we decided to do the exact OPPOSITE and actually allow the slope, the earth, the vegetation, water, and animals to flow underneath the house. We then floated the house up in the air and by doing this we managed to save on the immense cost of creating soil retention walls around the site. This almost common sense and obvious decision created a very light touch intervention that allows the terrain to breathe whilst providing a spectacular view to the ocean from the key location on the site.

The house is created out of modules that are repetitive and linked by flying bridges that hover over the landscape. As the house had to be built on a steep slope, many of the pieces were prefabr...