Pyramids Please
Proposal for a Greenhouse, 2026
Pyramids are everywhere. We remember the monumental ones and live in ordinary ones. I love all of them: square pyramids, mountains, gable roofs, tents, the Gamble House, I.M. Pei. The form is universal, but every one is particular.
Issey Miyake saw the t-shirt the same way. By pleating it, he turned couture toward everyday clothes. The pleat lets a flat cloth hold its own shape, stand off the body, and breathe. Pyramids might be the architectural equivalent of the t-shirt: common, easy, and different on everyone.
Pyramids Please is a pleated pyramid, a house and greenhouse in an arid climate with three ecosystems: a thermal box, an active greenhouse, and a tent. A single flexible material is pleated, buttoned at the corners, and propped open by an oblique mast. The mast pierces a thermal wall and carries water diffusers and an air chimney. A humid greenhouse wraps the mast and sits on the box. Below it, the box holds the living spaces. At the ground, a waffle garden holds water in the soil and extends the tent’s humidity outward.
TEAM Carson Somer
- Gable View, Wiggly Edge
- Elevation, Side
- Eave View, Wiggly Edge
- Close Up
- Close Up
- Lower Plan
- Upper Plan
- Elevation, Front
- Section
- Corner Elevation
- Gable Drawing, Dressed
- Gable Drawing, Undressed
- Eave Drawing, Dressed
- Eave Drawing, Undressed
- Prop, Box, Mast. Undressed
- Prop, Box, Mast. Undressed
- Section
- Prop, Box, Mast. Undressed
- Section