Private Residence In La Gorce / Touzet Studio

Architects: Touzet Studio – Carlos Prio-Touzet, Jacqueline Gonzalez
Location: La Gorce Island, Miami Beach, Florida, USA
Building Area: 17,871 sqm
Date of Completion: October 2008
Photographs: Mark Surloff

The Client brief included over 16,000 sf of program and the request that the plan organizationshould follow the basic layout of the 1926 Carl Fisher Estate, a property he had once owned. The program was divisible into three distinct groupings: a main house that contained the primary public and private areas; a guest pavilion; a service structure that contained servant quarters, garage, secure storage, mechanical rooms and power plant.

The main house consists of a large volume intersected by a number of variously expressed elements that house particular portions of the program: the master bedroom suite is housed within a cantilevered glass and stucco element that looks over a strip of private beach and the +110 foot reflecting pool (that contains a pool and spa). The family room fills a high-ceilinged glass and stucco wedge that hangs over the front garden.

site plan

he breakfast room is a glass box that extends beyond the main volume to capture views of Indian Creek and the morning sun. The main vertical element, at the core of the residence, is a 25’ diameter void that houses a partially suspended stair that spirals from a 9’ width at the ground level to a 3.5’ width at the roof garden on the third level.