Project: Coconut Grove Cottage  Extension and Preservation 1

Architecture: TROPICA
Landscape Design: TROPICA 
Interior Design: TROPICA
GC: iBUILD
Landscape Installation: TROPICA 

Status: Construction
Design: 2024
Build: 2025 - 

Location: Coconut Grove, Miami, FL

TEXT: This 100-year-old historic cottage is the plot for the large extension. Rather than reacting to the earth, we approached the cottage with an archeological process.

In this project, again, no foreign design elements are brought to the site, rather the PLOT dictates the approach. The special history of Bahamian Cottages in the neighborhood -- Coconut Grove -- colors not only this project, but also the houses surrounding. In the early 1900’s cottages were built with no more than 1000 square feet. Now, many of these houses are being demolished to make way for significantly larger homes.

In the existing home, all stucco and drywall were removed to reveal the original wooden structure of this historical architecture that was created in a time of ship-builders defining local architecture. The wood structure and joinery informed the large 5-bedroom extension in every way possible.

Concrete beams of the new project are formed with wood texture, local cypress wood is clad as infill panels, and all rafters and roof structure are left exposed.

After removing the stucco from the historical structure, new stucco is applied and stamped with plywood.

This same texture is utilized on the extension to complete the PLOT’s imprint on the new building.

This project is a comprehensive intervention as our office was contracted to complete the architecture, interiors, and landscape of the addition.

Within the new home, elements of the existing cottage are utilized extensively. Arches, wood trim, and previously concealed roof beams / rafters are repurposed and reused throughout the interiors.

In the landscape, oolitic limestone is excavated and exposed to create hardscape pathways and solid planters for native plants brought in to grow directly on the stone.

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