A jewel-box penthouse in Miami

Miami is Florida’s largest metropolitan area, a sun-drenched city famous for its beaches and social life and for its rich Latin American flavour created by the presence of large Haitian, Cuban and Puerto Rican communities. It is also renowned for its many luxury homes, especially towards South Beach, and its high-rise buildings offering splendid views of long fine white sandy beaches.
One such residential tower is home to a penthouse built last year by Mojo Stumer Associates based on a new urban design concept that combines brutalism and colour and stands out for its large, inclusive common areas delineated by frames clad with large ceramic slabs.
The living area with central kitchen, the true hub of the home, is filled with natural light originating from the large windows which also offer breathtaking views over the Atlantic Ocean. The large-format concrete-effect wall panels enhance the sense of space, creating a compact and vibrant backdrop to the coloured, wood and stone furnishings and the many art works and design items scattered around the home.
The design style of Mojo Stumer Associates, a well-known American architecture and interior design firm specialising in residential and retail design, fits in perfectly with the client’s wishes in this project. As architect Mark Stumer tells us, “The central aim of our design approach is to meet our clients’ agendas while taking account of their budget. It’s a challenge to always be on the lookout for solutions and materials that are most suited to the available spaces and deliver the aesthetic quality and emotional appeal of our proposals. We were thrilled to use large format ceramic tiles, not just due to their beauty but also because we knew that Florim is highly committed to lowering its environmental footprint. Porcelain makes responsible use of raw materials and uses recycled content, helping to reduce waste throughout the supply chain.”
Cedit’s Matrice collection, chosen in the Essenza version, was used to clad both the floors and walls in the interiors of the Miami penthouse. Designed by the firm BRH+ (Barbara Brondi & Marco Rainò), the collection draws inspiration from Italian modernist architecture to create a distinctive exposed concrete look with a variety of compositional solutions and a series of finishes that coordinate perfectly with the porcelain surfaces. Porcelain recreates the versatility and the austere, essential look of concrete, while a series of geometric patterns on the surfaces of the collection, including the different colour versions, break up the orthogonal regularity of the installation and create a completely new sense of space.