Floating House Uyilo Lwezakhiwo Zokuhlala by Oliver Schutte

Floating House Uyilo Lwezakhiwo Zokuhlala by Oliver Schutte is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2026 Ibhaso Lesilivere le-A' Design Award in Uyilo lweeMveliso eziNzileyo, iiProjekthi kunye noYilo oluLuhlaza Competition Category.

IsilivereImveliso eNzileyo· 2026

Floating House Uyilo Lwezakhiwo Zokuhlala

by Oliver Schutte

Ibhaso Lesilivere le-A' Design Award Winner in Imveliso eNzileyo Category

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Verified Award Winner

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The Design

About Floating House Uyilo Lwezakhiwo Zokuhlala

I-Floating House likhaya elinemigangatho emithathu elikwiNtili eseMbindini yaseCosta Rica. Esi sakhiwo silinganiselwa kwiimitha ezisikweri ezingama-400 kwaye sibekwe kwindawo esethambekeni lenduli. Iindlela zoyilo ezingasebenzisi mandla (passive design) zikhokela le projekthi, kuquka ukubekwa ngokweemfuno zendawo kunye nokusetyenziswa kobutyebi bendalo. Iindlela zokwakha zemizi-mveliso nezenziwe kwangaphambili zidityaniswa nezinto zokwakha ezivunwe ekuhlaleni nezihlaziyekayo. Uphahla olude olungaphandle lukhusela izithuba ezingezantsi kwimvula nakwimitha yelanga. Amandla elanga aqokelelwa eluphahleni. Iigadi ezisezinqanabeni kunye neebhalkoni zijonge kwimbonakalo yendalo ejikelezileyo.

The Recognition

About the Ibhaso Lesilivere le-A' Design Award

Floating House Uyilo Lwezakhiwo Zokuhlala ngumphumeleli weIbhaso Lesilivere le-A' Design Award, ukuqatshelwa okuhlonitshwayo ngokungaqhelekanga okunikwa imiyilo yomgangatho ophezulu, entle nechukumisayo. Abaphumeleleyo beSilivere ziimveliso ezikhazimlayo kakhulu nezidala kakhulu ezibonisa ubungcali obuphawulekayo, italente nobukrelekrele babayili bazo. Floating House Uyilo Lwezakhiwo Zokuhlala iyathenjwa ukuba ibe ngumsebenzi omhle womzekelo, onobungcali obuphawulekayo nezinto ezintsha ezinzulu. Lo myilo uphumeleleyo weIbhaso Lesilivere le-A' Design Award yimveliso ebonakalayo kakhulu, ethandwayo enceda kwaye inyusa imida yobugcisa, inzululwazi, uyilo kunye nobuchwephesha. Floating House Uyilo Lwezakhiwo Zokuhlala yimveliso enomona omkhulu kuyo evusa iinqwenelo, izisa iimvakalelo ezintle kwaye ivuselela ukumangaliswa nokumangala.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: The Floating House is located in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, which houses the Greater Metropolitan Area with about sixty percent of the national population. In this context, the project creates a suburban oasis on a beautiful hillside location. Hanging gardens and balconies provide the home owners with spectacular views of the surrounding landscape, while large roof overhangs protect the individual spaces from rainwater and solar radiation. Solar energy is harvested on top of the roof.
Dimensions & Packaging: The three-level building measures about 400 square meters in total. Floating light-frame structures are contrasted by service areas that are built onto the sloping terrain. Social spaces in the center of the house are opening up to the surrounding gardens of the property. The project is based on passive design strategies such as site-specific positioning and the use of natural resources. Industrial building techniques are combined with locally harvested and regenerative construction materials.
Tags: Architecture, Bioclimatic, Climate, Cocreation, Design, Development, Modularity, Prefabrication, Sustainability, Regeneration, Residential, Tropical, Zero emission, Zero footprint
Production Technology: The Floating House combines prefabricated and local building techniques. Its ground floor transitions from a sloped site condition to the terraced building geometry. Private rooms at the top float above a sandwiched garden level, resulting in three different conditions that are vertically stacked on top of each other. Large glass doors and sliding walls are designed to dynamically moderate the relationship among interior and exterior spaces, according to the necessities of rainy or dry season.
Design Challenge: The main challenge of the No Footprint House series, including the Floating House as an expression of its ongoing material development progress, is to unite a broad variety of entities in a joined multistakeholder approach. Such broadness and systemic thinking are required to find solutions for some of the greatest challenges of our time, which includes the lowering and leveling of emissions in all sectors that significantly contribute environmental contamination.
Research: Costa Rica has shifted from a strategy of sustainability to regenerative development. In this context, the ongoing No Footprint House series, the NFH project, drives innovation through the development and incorporation of renewable and locally sourced building materials in combination with passive design strategies and local energy production. The project is optimized through industrial and prefabricated building techniques, the first of its kind in Central America.
Inspiration: The Floating House is inspired by its surrounding landscape and the local tropical climate. A series of interrelated volumes and outside spaces are placed according to the logic of the target site. Ample roof overhangs follow the sloped site condition, protecting all spaces below while revealing spectacular views onto the Costa Rican capital San Jose. Interior rooms merge with their surrounding exterior gardens, creating a balanced and harmonic relationship of nature and the built environment.
Project Duration: The actual duration of each project from the NFH series depends on the specific building size and its respective location. Beyond the building of individual homes, the NFH framework engages in strategies of sustainability and regenerative development. This includes, for example, topics like reforestation, the creation of food forests, permaculture, local energy production and a continuous life cycle improvement. The duration of these aspects can be described as ongoing and potentially endless.
Operation Flow: The Floating House is designed according to the principles of bioclimatic architecture and passive design strategies. Industrial building techniques combine with locally harvested and regenerative construction materials. The project is based on the research of the No Footprint House, a modular building system that allows for a broad variety of residential typologies. The larger project framework engages with academia and industry to cocreate sustainable and regenerative building solutions.
Patents: Copyrights to all building and interior designs belong to A-01 (A Company / A Foundation)
Image Credits: A-01 / Garcia Lachner