Pyramids Please
Proposal, 2026
There's no shortage of pyramids around. We remember the monumental ones and are comforted by the domesticated ones. I love them all: square pyramids, mountains, and gable roofs. I love tents and the Gamble House and I.M. Pei equally. I love that pyramids cut a bottom-heavy figure, that they're reminders of a ubiquitous form yet each one is particular.
Issey Miyake saw the t-shirt the same way. When he pleated it, he turned couture toward casual wear. The pleat made something intricate feel immediately comfortable, even familiar. I probably love t-shirts as much as pyramids, and Pyramids Please brings them together.
It's a proposal for a house and greenhouse in an arid climate with three ecosystems: a thermal box, an active greenhouse, and a tent. A single material, flexible enough to pleat, is buttoned at the corners and propped open by an oblique mast. The mast pierces a thermal wall and contains water diffusers and an air chimney. A humid greenhouse surrounds the mast, sitting on the box. Below it, the thermal box forms the living spaces. At the ground, a waffle garden holds water in the soil, extending the tent's humidity.
Like the t-shirt, we know the pyramid. It slips on easily and keeps us cool. Pyramids Please is a love letter to Miyake and to the gable roof that lives on your block.
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