Wex Residence

From the street, the house is a study in contrast. A long white upper volume cantilevers over a recessed ground floor, its face screened by dark vertical fins that temper the sun and give the upper rooms privacy. Beneath it, a box of board-formed concrete pushes forward into the garden, holding a study that looks straight into the planting. Arrival is carefully staged: concrete step pads, lit from below, float over low ground cover toward a tall timber door tucked into the shadow of the overhang.

Toward the water, the plan divides into two intersecting volumes, and the house opens up. A double-height terrace, lined in warm timber on both wall and soffit, carries the living room outdoors under deep shade. The terrace steps down to the lawn, a long pool with a dark-tiled spa, and a timber sun deck, with the waterway beyond.

Inside, the section does the work the footprint cannot. Living and dining rise to 15 feet, and the stair becomes the center of the composition: pale timber treads cantilevered from a single dark steel stringer, set against a screen of vertical timber fins and climbing beside a full-height wall of greenery. A bed of dark river stones beneath it grounds the whole piece. The treads appear to hang in mid-air, so the stair reads as sculpture rather than circulation. Upstairs, wide-plank wood floors and a wood-paneled family room, framed by the same timber slats, bring warmth to the private floor. The result is 4,998 square feet of livable space, within 6,661 square feet in total, that feels far larger than the numbers suggest.

Stephanie Halfen designed the home in collaboration with Oona Architecture of Argentina, at the clients’ request, with SDH Studio bringing the local knowledge and construction pragmatism that turned a shared concept into a buildable house. TREO Construction delivered it. The rear elevation, lit at dusk above the pool, made the cover of Florida Design’s Miami Home & Decor in September 2018 (Issue 14-2).