San Vicente Residence

Coral Gables, Florida | under construction

This house is a Mediterranean-style patio home designed for the context of Coral Gables, Florida. It borrows from classic Mediterranean tropes (the atrium and courtyard, the representation of stone-focused materiality and the idea of a home designed for leisure and indoor-outdoor living). The home also functions as a creative and modern reiteration of the modern Mediterranean home, those mid-twentieth century villas that pioneered the functional-modern-amenity-laden Mediterranean home). Indeed, a Mediterranean architectural syntax was considered proto-modern in the early 20th century; the informal, functional, and climate-appropriate massing of this vernacular were prized by modernists. In all, the San Vicente House draws on earlier precedents yet offers a fresh interpretation of the patio home type.

The house is organized as two linear bars defining a series of courtyards between them. The front bar, comprising the living components of the home, is located behind a screen wall of oolitic rock, reiterating both its geological foundations and the tradition of oolitic rock in Coral Gables (found for example at the 1924 Venetian Pool and the adjacent 1936 Dean Parmelee Home). This front element identifies the house as more inwardly focused, while also screening the rear car port. The house opens more broadly toward the courts at the center, including a landscaped atrium. A velarium covers the outdoor dining area, dividing the landscaped atrium from the pool area. A drive court at the opposite end of the house allows recreational space and opens to the car port; it also provides a second entrance to the home.

Design Architect: Shulman + Associates
Architect-of-Record: Riodas Architecture Studio
General Contractor: Solco Engineering

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