A house in Florida creates a manifesto for suburban tropical architecture

With a sheltered courtyard wrapped around a sweeping curve, Atelier Mey's suburban Miami home seeks the deepest harmony between environment, architecture and domestic life.

House in a Garden is set on a plot in the suburbs of Miami, in Coconut Grove, amidst lush vegetation. Here, Atelier Mey engages with the design of a house that seeks to restore not only recognizable features to tropical architecture but, through a contemporary language, finds harmony with the local environment and climate.

On the one hand, the house impresses with its finish: a sequence of curved, micro-perforated sheet metal panels that define the project's main image. On the other hand, it conceals numerous low-tech design choices aimed at reducing energy consumption and ensuring a lifestyle typical of the area.

Atelier Mey, House In A Garden, Historic Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida, 2022. Photo Tim Hursley.

As  the designers explained to Domus, the architecture is defined by a few essential elements. The first is the overhanging roof, where a semicircle generates an open courtyard, allowing people to live outdoors while remaining sheltered, even during heavy rains. 
“The ‘U’ courtyard acknowledges the presence of an existing avocado tree; at the same time, the plan is organized as an environmental response to the context”.

Atelier Mey, House In A Garden, Historic Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida, 2022. Photo Tim Hursley.

Inside the house, high ceilings and the presence of large openings ensure natural cooling through cross-ventilation, reducing energy consumption for air conditioning. Together, these elements make architecture a breathing organism in continuous exchange with its environment. Moreover, The overhang and the micro-perforated metal sheet cladding system significantly increase shading for the CLT structure, protecting it from Florida's intense sun and working on the long-term life of the structure.
This underlines the main scope of the architects: “The idea is to use climate in making the architecture. Form, climate, energy, materiality. All is about the place, and the project becomes a challenge and a case study for subtropical architectures”.

House in a Garden is not just a wooden structure that minimizes material consumption by standardizing the materials used. It is a manifesto house showing how tropical architectural features can inform a contemporary project.
A climatic house that breathes, shades, and where the experience of space connects vegetation, climate, materials, and wellbeing.

Latest on Architecture

Latest on Domus

Read more
China Germany India Mexico, Central America and Caribbean Sri Lanka Korea icon-camera close icon-comments icon-down-sm icon-download icon-facebook icon-heart icon-heart icon-next-sm icon-next icon-pinterest icon-play icon-plus icon-prev-sm icon-prev Search icon-twitter icon-views icon-instagram