027_Coconut Grove Garden Office
027_Office Mobile Facade
027_Office Atrium Garden
Project: Coconut Grove Garden Office
Architecture: TROPICA
Landscape Design: TROPICA
Interior Design: TROPICA
GC: iBUILD
Landscape Installation: TROPICA
Status: Permitting
Design: 2024
Build: Planned 2026
Location: Coconut Grove, Miami, FL
TEXT: The Grotto Office is an exercise in extending the plot vertically, past the future flood zone, so that it can define the quality of the architecture, ground plane, and visitor experience.
The substantial structural foundations required necessitate significant on-site foundation excavations. These excavations will be carried out by a stone expert to harvest and reuse the oolite rock found just inches below the soil. Visitors will enter the office, parking within this grotto-landscape. In this way, the office gives back its footprint to the PLOT. Native plants, which grow directly on this oolite stone, without soil, are used in the landscape design.
The stone, which is excavated from the PLOT itself, will be used alongside the concrete superstructure. Engineered to resist hurricane winds, the concrete structure is designed to accentuate the individual columns and beams, like archaic primitive tropical huts.
The wood screen around the exterior will be created from reclaimed greenheart wood, preserved over years under the bay, as dock pilings. This greenheart wood is exceptionally dense and hard, preventing any termite or moisture damage over time. By re-using wood that would ordinarily be discarded, the building takes inspiration from the common dock constructions of Florida, while also acting as a model for a more renewable way of building with reclaimed materials. The wooden screen will provide privacy, shading, permeability, and maintain natural ventilation.
Within the concrete superstructure, wood infill rooms are placed in a way which meets current office needs, but that can be easily reconfigured as program changes over time.
Each different floor of the office is organized in a different typology of tropical exterior space.
Floor 1: A stone garden and grotto characterize the ground floor, parking, and entry sequence. The site and PLOT are raised to floor 2.
Floor 2: A dog-trot typology - two volumes separated by a central shaded, and ventilated space - provides an open meeting area for shared offices.
Floor 3: A continuous balcony around the main tenant’s office space provides a wrap-around balcony for each individual workspace.
Floor 4: An open roof garden and terrace provide a gathering area for all tenants.
Images:
Project: Coconut Grove Garden Office
Architecture: TROPICA
Landscape Design: TROPICA
Interior Design: TROPICA
GC: iBUILD
Landscape Installation: TROPICA
Status: Permitting
Design: 2024
Build: Planned 2026
Location: Coconut Grove, Miami, FL
TEXT: The Grotto Office is an exercise in extending the plot vertically, past the future flood zone, so that it can define the quality of the architecture, ground plane, and visitor experience.
The substantial structural foundations required necessitate significant on-site foundation excavations. These excavations will be carried out by a stone expert to harvest and reuse the oolite rock found just inches below the soil. Visitors will enter the office, parking within this grotto-landscape. In this way, the office gives back its footprint to the PLOT. Native plants, which grow directly on this oolite stone, without soil, are used in the landscape design.
The stone, which is excavated from the PLOT itself, will be used alongside the concrete superstructure. Engineered to resist hurricane winds, the concrete structure is designed to accentuate the individual columns and beams, like archaic primitive tropical huts.
The wood screen around the exterior will be created from reclaimed greenheart wood, preserved over years under the bay, as dock pilings. This greenheart wood is exceptionally dense and hard, preventing any termite or moisture damage over time. By re-using wood that would ordinarily be discarded, the building takes inspiration from the common dock constructions of Florida, while also acting as a model for a more renewable way of building with reclaimed materials. The wooden screen will provide privacy, shading, permeability, and maintain natural ventilation.
Within the concrete superstructure, wood infill rooms are placed in a way which meets current office needs, but that can be easily reconfigured as program changes over time.
Each different floor of the office is organized in a different typology of tropical exterior space.
Floor 1: A stone garden and grotto characterize the ground floor, parking, and entry sequence. The site and PLOT are raised to floor 2.
Floor 2: A dog-trot typology - two volumes separated by a central shaded, and ventilated space - provides an open meeting area for shared offices.
Floor 3: A continuous balcony around the main tenant’s office space provides a wrap-around balcony for each individual workspace.
Floor 4: An open roof garden and terrace provide a gathering area for all tenants.
Images:
027_Office Facade
027_Office Garden Atrium
027_Office Shared Workspace
027_Office Garden Terrace
027_Office Garden Atrium
027_Office Movable Facade
027_Office Conference Room
027_Office Garden Terrace
027_Office Garden Terrace
027_Office Garden
027_Office Parking
027_Office Roof Garden
Process:
027_Office Facade Study
027_Greenheart Decking
027_Greenheart Dock
027_Oolite Grotto
027_Office Facade Study
027_Greenheart Decking
027_Greenheart Dock
027_Oolite Grotto
Drawings:
027_Landscape Plan 027_Ground Plan- Structure 027_Ground Plan 027_L2 Plan 027_L3 Plan 027_L4 Plan 027_L5 Plan 027_Section 027_Section 027_Section 027_Section 027_Elevations - Structure
027_Landscape Plan
027_Ground Plan- Structure
027_Ground Plan
027_L2 Plan
027_L3 Plan
027_L4 Plan
027_L5 Plan
027_Section
027_Section
027_Section
027_Section
027_Elevations - Structure