Piloti

Pilotis or piers, are supports such as columns, pillars, stilts, by which a building is lifted above what is underneath, whether it is ground or water. They are traditionally found in stilt and pole dwellings such as fishermen's huts in Asia and Sweden [Sweden: [http://www.objectif-suede.com/show_image_en-434.html a single photograph of such houses] , whose caption calls the supports pilotis.] using wood and in elevated houses such as Old Queenslanders in Australia's tropical Northern state, though they are in this case classified as "stumps".

Function

In modern architecture, pilotis are ground-level supporting columns. A prime example is Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye in Poissy, France. Another is Patrick Gwynne's The Homewood in Surrey, England.

Beyond their support function, the pilotis (or piers) raise the architectural volume, lighten it and free a space for circulation under the construction. [ [http://www.historial.org/us/renseign/doss7-5.htm www.historial.org/us/renseign/doss7-5.htm] ] They refine a building's connectivity with the land by allowing for parking, garden or driveway below while allowing a sense of floating and lightness in the architecture itself.

Le Corbusier used them in a variety of forms from slender posts to the massive brutalist look of the Marseilles Housing Unit (1945-1952) with a range of bases, inclusions and surfaces. This was part of Le Corbusier's idea of machine-like efficiency where land, people and buildings would work together optimally.

Australian architect, the late Harry Seidler incorporated pilotis in the Brutalist-style private residence, Harry and Penelope Seidler House at Killara in Sydney when it was built in 1966-67.

Notes

References

*Article: "Pilote, die" in: Pevsner, Honour, Fleming: "Lexikon der Weltarchitektur," München 1987
* [http://www.historial.org/us/renseign/doss7-5.htm historial.org/us/renseign/doss7-5.htm]
* [http://www.trp.dundee.ac.uk/research/glossary/pilotis.html trp.dundee.ac.uk/research/glossary/pilotis.html]
* [http://www.piloti.com/default.aspx]