Lakeshore Residence

The Lakeshore Residence sits on a quiet stretch of Highlands County where the land is flat, open, and closer to water than most of Florida cares to admit. The house answers that condition directly. The entire living level is lifted a full story, with the garage and workshop tucked below, so the rooms the family actually lives in sit high and dry with long views out over the property. What makes this home unusual is what it's built from and what runs it. The structure uses BamCore, a bamboo-based wall system that replaces conventional stud framing. It insulates better than a stick-framed wall, uses a rapidly renewable material, and stores carbon instead of releasing it. Very few custom homes in Florida are built this way, and doing it properly meant detailing the entire envelope around a system most builders have never handled. The house is conditioned by the ground it stands on. A geothermal water-source heat pump draws from six wells on site, paired with ductless units serving the level below. The result is a home that costs a fraction of a conventional Florida house to run through a Central Florida summer. Above that engineering sits an unfussy building. A dark board-and-batten core anchored between lighter lap-sided wings, standing seam metal roofing, black window frames, and curved timber brackets carrying deep porches on both levels. Vaulted ceilings open the living, dining, and kitchen. An elevator means the house works for its owners indefinitely, and the mature oaks on the property stayed.