Project: Coconut Grove Townhouses

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

Status: Design
Design: Ongoing
Build:  

Location: Coconut Grove, Miami, FL

TEXT: This multi-family townhouse is an experiment in physically using the plot in the construction of both the building and garden.

The initial construction process on the site is an excavation to dig slightly below-ground parking and foundations for the large structure. During this process, rock workers cut the oolitic limestone present on site and preserve and cut it to be used in the facade of the building.

Because the oolitic stone is porous and calcium-based, it is not structural, so it will be used to create privacy and a unique expression to each townhouse.

Each townhouse will receive unique cuts after being removed from the earth. Rocks will also be scattered throughout the landscape to be utilized for planters, hardscape, and paving.

This architectural process is one of moving and reconfiguring within the PLOT, opposed to the typical process of addition and subtraction. Rather than bringing material to and from the site, it is our goal to re-use and re-purpose as much of the PLOT as possible. In this way, the character of the plot is not lost, but enhanced in the expression of the eventual garden and architecture. 

Within the five-story vertical townhouse, each unit receives a unique central courtyard to provide light and air to the interior. Rough oolite and smooth keystone, geologically formed nearby in the Florida Keys, will be used throughout each room of the units.

Balconies of each floor step to the right and left, in order to break the typical vertical image of the repeated townhouses.

The units are developed to be repeated, but with unique facade geometries, as the ownership group acquires adjacent properties over time. The location along the Coconut Grove limestone ridge will provide ample opportunities to excavate additional oolite.

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