miaja5
- Jun 5, 2020
- 5 min read

Designing Homes - 'Pastel Paradise' - Modern Miami Style by Isabelle Miaja

Miami Beach, an interior design style that is cool and sophisticated with a mixture of contemporary glam and a vintage Art Deco feel. It is also about vivacious colours, gorgeous patterns that range from geometric to floral. A style that inspired me to design this new project.

Singapore with its tropical climate, creating an indoor/outdoor experience where the breeze and the garden view are the main focus is paramount. Elements like Courtyards, shady porches, flying roofs, and screened-in lanais are mainstays. As a tropical island, there is an expectation for untamed fauna and palm trees with turquoise pools. The trend is towards natural materials and finishes with attention to patterns and textures and brings nature indoors as much as possible through big windows and openings that let the greenery visually in.

Taking inspiration from Miami and its Art deco era, the mix between pastels and simple yet powerful architecture was a great combination. Miami style is about simple, modern elegance adding tropical nature to infuse a sense of well-being and serenity.

With the largest concentration of Art Deco buildings in the world, the historic Art Deco district of Miami still oozes 1930s glamour, its oceanfront is lined with ice-cream-pastel hotels.

In 1912, from a swampy, mosquito-infested wasteland, Carl Fisher decided to buy a holiday home in the area and swiftly bought up the land, dubbing his future haven “Miami Beach.” He started building it in the style du jour: Art Deco. His empire of oceanfront estates and luxury hotels, included the famous bright-pink Flamingo Hotel, Miami Beach’s first truly grand accommodation, it even had a resident elephant, Rosie.

Fisher knew that to keep up with the world’s sophisticates, he needed to follow the Art Moderne movement that was sweeping across Europe at the time. Together with Floridian architects Henry Hohauser and Lawrence Murray Dixon, they cemented the signature Miami Beach style. The architects became famous for their introduction of streamlined curves, window “eyebrows” and the “law of three” – all trademark features of Miami’s Art Deco buildings.

In 1976 came Leonard Horowitz. “I'll take care of the buildings. I'll do the frosting on the cake because these buildings, look like they're going to be a lot of fun to play with," said Horowitz in a film from 1988 called 'Pastel Paradise'.

Horowitz’s love for Art Deco is why South Beach looks the way it does today, bringing back to life Art Deco Architecture in Miami, restoring with his own interpretation of the unique vision of automobile pioneer Carl Fisher.

Leonard Horowitz, created a special colour palette to spruce up the dated properties of the district, his perseverance did the trick, and new life was breathed into Miami Beach, which became revitalised as the buzzing international metropolis it had been once been.

Miami’s warm weather and cultural diversity also influence the look and feel. Inspired by sun and sea—it’s a much more playful and colourful approach to design and lifestyle. Adding the global exposure of Art Basel has opened Miami up to a more design-savvy eye on architecture and interiors.

Since launching in 2002, Art Basel Miami has become North America’s premier art fair, exhibits an amazing array of contemporary paintings, films, and videos, sculptures, drawings, photography, digital art and installations from more than 4,000 artists.

Our art curating also includes the amazing works by Singapore artist Ieo Gek Ching – like our design approach, she is interested in the hybridism of animals and their environment. She is influenced by the different idiosyncrasies and characteristics of each different animal and expresses her concern about the ecological environment through art. Through her advocacy for the unique and unusual, Gek Ching continues to develop her distinct drawing style with more pronounced and singular use of colour, breathing new life into her latest animal hybrid series. Their highly intricate nature unfolds and evolves upon her specially prepared paper, resembling the expressions of their living ancestors, that is both startling and beautiful.

Art is also about sculptures and introducing the works of two French artists in this design I am emphasizing the forms and materials used during the Art Deco times but with a more contemporary approach.

The forgotten world of Mobiles is brought back to life by Christel Sadde – a world of 'Balance, geometry, poetry, and movement' - As a decorative object - her kinetic graceful mobiles add to the feeling of lightness in the room. The beautiful materials of reflective brass and chrome plates add to the simple yet luxurious design.

Guillaume Roche’s stainless-steel sculptures add to the design by introducing powerful lines and aerial movement. Again, the element of lightness, improbable balance between the forms. With a beautiful sense of equilibrium, his sculpture adds to the carefully selected Artistic curation, giving my design the final touch through his unique refined signature.

Our interior not only emulates the colours of Miami’s predilection to pastels but also its impetus towards Contemporary Art. Proposing to my client Hom Nguyen’s works fits perfectly in the storyline – one of colours and the other of inspiration – this portrait is part of a series called “Racines” - roots in French – with this new series, the artist continues with his introspective process, his works echo a resilient memory, passing down a history gone by in a quest for identity. The fleetingness of the artist’s lifelines facilitates the emergence of an emotional experience where barriers fade. His works fit in the transition between figurative and abstract art, serving to question the lines between material and intellect, emotion, and questioning. The artist’s intent is to open the individual to the possibility of changeability, of openness toward others.

Today’s world crisis is again proving the artist right – his quest for identity and belonging is even more poignant as we face acceptance and challenges from every angle – personal lessons to be learned but a bigger message to Society to embrace differences and join in a fraternal embrace no matter the race or the gender.

Paraphrasing Audrey Hepburn “Creating a new design is believing in tomorrow” I put the final dot on this new page of our Friday 'Designing Homes' series.

Isabelle Miaja

June 2020