Floating Terraces — Lorenz Huber

Fig. 00Layered megastructure floating above a forested valley3840 × 1312 px

Project data

A layered structure hovering above a forested valley. Thin, stacked plates carry gardens and paths, while the ground underneath stays almost untouched.

Project no.: 01 / 05
Discipline: Architecture
Year: 2026
Type: Concept study
Status: Speculative
Chapters: 04
Figures: 05

01 / 04

Brief

01 fig.

How far can a building lift off the ground and still belong to it?

The starting point was a valley that should stay a valley: forest, water and slope remain in place, and everything built has to make room for them.

Instead of sitting on the terrain, the project hovers above it and touches down only where the structure needs to.

Fig. 01The structure seen across the valley3840 × 1312 px

02 / 04

Concept

01 fig.

Strata instead of floors.

The building is a stack of thin, offset plates. Each one is a landscape of its own, with planting, paths and open edges, rather than a closed storey.

Gaps between the plates let light and rain reach the forest floor.

Fig. 02Detail of the stacked plates3840 × 1312 px

03 / 04

Programme

02 fig.

Public on the edges, quiet in the core.

Walkways and gardens run along the open edges of every plate. Enclosed rooms sit deeper inside the stack, where the plates overlap most.

Fig. 03Planted terraces at the lower levels3840 × 1312 px

Fig. 04The supports reaching down into the forest3840 × 1312 px

04 / 04

Process

Text

Developed through massing studies and rendered views, testing how thin the plates could read against the sky and how much of the valley stays visible.