Colombian-Ecuadorian filmmaker Alejandro Landes has completed his first built project: a tropical-modernist mansion in Miami Coconut Grove House is currently among the city's most expensive residential properties.

The 20,000-square-foot (1,858-square-metre) Coconut Grove House estate on the shore of Miami's Biscayne Bay includes seven bedrooms distributed across three storeys.

Completed in late 2015. Landes, who briefly swapped movies for architecture last year, envisioned the house as a "framework for living". He originally built it for himself and his family, but put it up for sale six months later.

In Coconut Grove House, Landes  tried to do what he do as a filmmaker: frame life and time in a way that connects
 the outside with what's inside. Its minimalist concrete structure allows the interior spaces to be completely open to the outdoors. The ground floor of the residence sits beneath an expansive concrete plinth that wraps around the house. This elevated plane serves as a deck for the floors above.

According to Miami's strict construction code, properties by the water must be raised to avoid flooding. Landes took this as an opportunity to create a vast shaded lounging area on the ground floor. From this area, a dramatic white staircase slopes gently up to the house's main living area, where a double-height living space serves as a gathering point for residents and their guests. This expansive room enjoys direct access to a deck that extends the home outside. The top storey contains more intimate spaces, including a standalone suite that contains its own kitchen and amenities.