HIBISCUS RESIDENCE

Building Area: 10,473 SF

Building Status: Completed

Our client came to us with the idea of making a modern Miami Beach translation of a hôtel particulier, which is essentially a French urban palace.  As a hobby, he had researched and published books on the lost chateaus of Louis XVI. He especially loved a specific building type known as a “hotel particulier,” and asked us to create a contemporary tropical translation of this French urban typology.

The idea of re-interpreting this typology to be relevant for a 21st century Miami Beach house presented us with a very interesting design challenge. We understood that the client’s request was not for a “French style” or historical mansion. He wanted a thoroughly modern Miami Beach house, but he also wanted references to the spatial and historic roots of the hôtel particulier, re-imagined for Miami Beach and its tropical climate, as a starting point for the inspiration.