New York based SHoP Architects have joined forces with West 8 to design a ten acre, four block urban campus, which they believe could help position Miami as Florida’s Silicon Valley.
The Miami Innovation District, which is expected to receive full city approval later this year, will provide 3,850,000 sq ft of world-class office space, aimed at assisting the growth of the creative technology industries in the city. It will also comprise 2,400,000 sq ft of residential accommodation and 250,000 sq ft of retail space.
The district has been conceived in response to growing demand from the flourishing ‘Miami tech hub’ and is designed to deliver the facilities, culture and resources required to establish a genuine ‘technology ecosystem’.
The development will cater for a mixed community of businesses, ranging from start-up and middle-market firms to global corporations. It will support growth through the delivery of business incubators, accelerators and collaborative office space, along with events venues and open spaces.
The residential element of the scheme includes the provision of ‘micro-units’ of 300 sq ft or less, designed to appeal to ‘young ,creative urbanites’, many of whom currently find themselves priced out of the Miami housing market.
The masterplan comprises a series of component levels. The Commons level comprises building entries and public passages, while the larger office floor plates and indoor gathering spaces are located on the Campus level.
The Horizon level features an extensive green-roof landscape for informal outdoor gatherings and the staging of cultural programmes.
Finally, the Cloud level will provide a ‘floating mixing camber’ featuring informal work and exhibition space, tech support, day care amenities and continuing education facilities. This level will connect the district’s taller buildings at a height of approximately 200 ft above ground level.
The planned centrepiece of the new neighbourhood is the high-rise Miami Innovation Tower, described by SHoP Architects as a Digital Age landmark and a new icon for the city.
The tower features a global-first ‘fully-integrated active skin’ with built in displays which will broadcast revenue raising company updates, video art and advertising.
“Unlike traditional billboard signage, the mesh-like messaging technologies are in fact integrated completely into the complex, pleated form of the tower’s exterior.
“The result is an ethereal, highly transparent surface, open to the slender concrete tower core and views of the city and the sky beyond,” says SHoP.
The tower features two restaurants and several observation decks at various levels. It is completed by a sky garden which will also serve as a demonstration site for the installation of environmental technologies. At ground level, a public plaza and amphitheatre will host cultural events and provide retail space.
“Inspiring and responsible, inventive and original, rooted in the traditions of the local community even as it marks its place in global culture, the Miami Innovation Tower signals to the world that Miami is holding on to its special flare even as it catches and rides the coming high-tech wave,” the architects continue.
The innovation district proposals follow the lead of other global cities such as Barcelona, Berlin, London, Stockholm and Toronto, who are all boosting their local economies and gaining prestige through the evolution of their tech hubs.
“The Miami Innovation District is an engine for the growth of the whole city,” the design team concludes, “a way to ensure that all Miamians are prepared to take advantage of true 21st century prosperity.”
SHoP Architects is an award winning firm with a team of over 200 architects, designers and engineers. Recent and current projects include the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn and the East River Esplanade in Manhattan.
Award winning West 8 is an international practice specialising in urban design and landscape architecture with offices in Rotterdam and New York. Recent work includes Governors Island Park, a 172-acre island in New York Harbor, and the acclaimed Miami Beach Soundscape Park.
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