Miami is much more than just South Beach, the iconic palm-tree-dotted shore packed with bronzed bikini bods. This city at the tip of the Floridian peninsula is both a subtropical paradise and a treasure trove of art deco architecture: a study in contrasts with many a terracotta-tiled Spanish-style residence set beside a futuristic ultramodern structure. It?s Cuban food stalls, parrots perched on power lines, and elephantine leaves. It?s sunny summer weather almost year-round, spectacular sunrises over the ocean, and thunderous storms. If you could capture all these qualities in a single residence, it might just be the “Sun Path” House by Studio Christian Wassmann.

On a street full of original 1930’s bungalows, most of them largely indistinguishable from one another, a secret lurks. You might be able to spot it towering over the roof of its companion structure, as it’s even taller than the palm trees that surround it. It?s nothing like the building it was constructed to complement, yet it?s somehow the perfect foil, an addition that makes the scene even more “Miami” than it already was. It?s literally devoted to the worship of the sun, its three stories all having been designed with reverence to natural light.
It?s certainly appropriately named. A sculptural concrete staircase stands at its center, spiraling from one level to the next and offering entry to the addition directly from the sliding glass doors of the main bungalow. At the ...