Brody House

Location: Star Island, Miami Beach, Florida, USA

House area: 8,800 square feet/817 square metres

Site area: 40,000 square feet/3,716 square metres

Description: With only twenty-six buildings plots, this small island at the eastern end of the MacArthur Causeway, which connects Miami Beach to mainland Miami, has long been the most special of special places overlooking the skyline of the city.

The major goal of the design became the provision of visual access to the views of Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline. The plan is a direct accommodation to that task and grows out of an early diagram, which used a 24-foot square (2.2 square metres) to create a series of interlocking spatial entities.

The diagram created an axis at 45 degrees to the east–west axis of the site establishing an interaction between angular and rectangular geometries. The space interconnects vertically as well, using alternating courses of gray and tan block, creating an informal environment in which spatial relationships are three dimensional. The spatial extension created by the drama of the site is an active part of the sculptural aspect of the space.