Miami Made:
Insulae
Location: Miami
Year: Undergraduate 4th Year
Semester: Spring 2024
Professor: Carie Penabad, Adib Cure
*All drawings completed by myself
Insulae proposes a new model for Miami using its original standard sized city blocks while increasing density and promoting aesthetic diversity, allowing for individual design within the proposed framework. A standard set of dimensions and facade division would allow for easy customization within the set system, thus allowing for the easy densification of the blocks. The resulting block type would be more similar to that of the Roman “Palazzina” which promotes densification while preventing super-height structures, thus limiting the need for wider streets and still using the existing block plans. The name ‘insulae’ comes from the latin word for a Roman apartment building, drawing a line from the original Roman prototype to the more modern ‘palazzina’.
Studio was a joint studio held simultaneously in Miami and Yale SoA.
Miami Neighbourhood Mapping Analysis
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An initial urban masterplan exercise kicked off the studio, using the large Magic City Casino, located on the edge of Little Havana and Flagami in Miami. Currently an extensive parking lot with a casino and defunct dog racing track, the concept was to redevelop the site into higher density mixed-use housing to act as a prototype for the current single-family residential model in the area.
Studio Masterplan Exercise
Collaborators: Tate Nowell, Sebas Hernandez
Currently a casino with a now-defunct dog racing track, the majority of the site is covered by parking. It is surrounded by single family housing with a future mid-scale development in planning for the site across the street.
Using the typology of a palazzina block, the site was divided into vehicular and pedestrian paths, with the defunct dog track turned into a public park to preserve the memory of the site. The palazzina was further pushed and pulled, creating irregular shaped blocks that would mimic an organically grown street pattern while maintaining an approximate 100'x100' lot dimension.
Following the studio urban planning exercise was an individual project to develop a chosen housing type for Miami.
The palazzina was chosen for the project and a standard set of dimensioning and division was created for the original Miami block that would allow for easy modification of the already existing urban lot. The standard 50’x100’ block would be merged in sets of two, creating a new 100’x100’ double lot as base. From there setbacks and circulation corridors are defined, allowing for further division.
67 unique floor plans ranging from hotel-room, dorm, studio, 1-bed, 2-bed, 3-bed, non-square, and penthouse types showcase the endless combinations possible within the frameworks of the 100’x100’ lot plan.
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Select Pages from a ‘floor plan catalog’ created to showcase the dozens of combination of units and layout prototypes in more detail.
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Example visualisations from 3 example units, showing how while they work on standardised pattern they can be turned into personalised spaces.
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A standardized division system present in the prototypes as well as the separation of the facade from the unitary division of the plans allows for diversification.Even though each facade type uses a standard division for structure, aesthetic differences allow for a more varied urban-scape.
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Example facades designed with the same divisions.
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