Casa Florida

A three-story, five-unit apartment building in Miami derives its form, program, and materiality from observations of place. The working-class neighborhood of Allapattah, in which it is located, is industrial by nature and enlivened by its Caribbean residents. A courtyard invites guests to interact with each other within the confines of the ‘house,’ or ‘casa,’ allowing for serendipitous encounters that foster a sense of community. Lastly, the building’s scale addresses Miami’s ‘missing middle’ housing crisis—avoiding a drastic change to the existing scale and makeup of the surrounding fabric.