An apartment over Biscayne Bay, Miami — from the first conversation to the shop drawings. And the software that grows out of it.
Miami · the bay. Everything starts at this edge: the tower faces west over the water, and the sun sets in front of it all year; at the equinoxes, dead centre.
visualisations of the project · in development, rev. C.8 · october 2026
Seen from the eleventh floor, the bay gives the house its materials: the dark water at night becomes the stone, the silver light on it the steel, the driftwood the carbonised oak, the dry sand the oak, the haze the woven glass, the breeze the sheer. One quiet palette — no gold, no brass, no copper.
The island stands free in the morning light: one slab of near-black stone on a monolith of aged silver. Behind it a single 9.47 m wall keeps the books and the records, the coffee and the pantry; eight sliding panels open each one only when it is needed.
The service wall becomes the edge of the bay: where the doors are, the oak is carved with the ripples the tide leaves on the sand, so dense that the joints disappear. Toward the suite the ripples calm, and that quiet sand is where the art hangs.
10.4 m of glass that the curtains must leave free. Two layers in one recessed pocket, gathered only at the ends: measured against the modelled option, 92 % of the view stays free instead of 84 %.
A-101floor plan 
A-201kitchen elevations 
C-101civil works 
S-101structure & fixings 
E-101power, light, control 
P-101plumbing 
M-101air 
workshopthe island, exploded 
workshopgallery wall, by layers 
1:5island edge section 
workshoplibrary ladder 
1:2hall leaf head 
ergonomicsheights for the hand 
analysishow much view each option takes 
lightlight without a visible source 
elevationtwelve leaves Ten steps, each with something you can hold: a palette, a table of decisions, a set of drawings, a book for the workshop.
First conversations and survey: dimensions, the view, how the client lives, and the rules of the building — a post-tensioned slab that cannot be cut, work hours, the association.
→ survey · building rulesOne idea that orders every decision. Here: the bay, at rest — each material is a piece of the landscape seen from the window.
→ palette · narrativeScenes per room — kitchen, hall, suite, dressing room, threshold, bath — drawn and visualised at true scale, in numbered revisions.
→ visualisations · rev. C.1 → C.8Options are measured, not argued: how much of the view each curtain takes, heights for the hand, where every service point already is.
→ comparisons · ergonomicsEach meeting closes decisions in a shared table — what, who, status: approved, to confirm, to decide. The design adjusts; nothing is lost between versions.
→ decision logElement by element: material code, appliance, hardware, maker, lead time. What is still open is marked “to confirm with the makers”.
→ schedules · quantitiesA set for the general contractor: permits, plan, interior elevations, civil works, structure and fixings, electrical, plumbing, air, and scope by trade.
→ G-001 · A-101 · A-201–204 · C · S · E · P · M · XA fabrication book per piece: exploded views by layer, 1:5 and 1:2 sections, modules taken apart, hardware and tolerances, ready for the workshop.
→ fabrication bookSamples, mock-ups and approvals with the makers; every change returns to the drawings before it is cut.
→ samples · approvalsAssociation and permit first, then site: GPR scan before every fixing, load tests, site visits, a punch list — until the last leaf closes.
→ supervision · handoverrecinto designs interiors from the enclosure inward, at 1:1, with cost and reason attached to every piece.
Furniture, joinery and finishes are placed with their true dimensions and clearances — never as icons.
Each object carries supplier, price and lead time; the budget updates with every move.
Every decision keeps its reason — light, use, circulation — inherited from umbral.
Solutions proven in real projects become reusable kits for the next client.