Tour a Color-Packed Miami Home That Rethinks Art Deco Style
2023 has kicked off with a bang for designers Rafael Kalichstein and Joshua Rose, founders of the firm formerly known as Form Design Studio. The duo has just relaunched their Los Angeles–based practice under the name Citizen Artist, a phrase that describes the mutually ennobling connections and sense of responsibility shared by artists and the broader communities they inhabit. The name also nods to the legacy of Rafael’s late father, Joseph Kalichstein, a world-renowned concert pianist and quintessential citizen artist.
As a punctuation mark on the new identity, the firm’s latest project—a toothsome Miami home chockablock with dazzling design details—reaffirms the core values and profound artistry that have long defined Kalichstein and Rose’s work. Built around the skeleton of an existing waterfront residence from the 1950s, the house proposes a fresh definition of high Miami style, one that weaves an alluring tapestry of influences and archetypes endemic to the global hot spot. “We wanted to distill the essence of all these things that make Miami what it is,” Rose says of the partners’ vision for the home. “There are elements of Art Deco, Cuba, midcentury modern, even Golden Girls, but they’re all filtered through a contemporary lens to create something genuinely new.”
Working in collaboration with architect Scott Joyce of Scott Joyce Design, the partners in Citizen Artist (and in life) completely reimagined the envelope of the structure in terms of form, flow, and material. “This was a modest beach house that had been added onto and renovated several times over the years, each time moving further and further away from its original midcentury conception. We tried to give the house not just a new look but a new life that reflects the spirit and passions of our clients,” Joyce explains.
The beach-y materials palette is introduced immediately at the entry to the home, which features a ground cover of crushed seashells and walls covered in a custom-tinted stucco treatment that incorporates an aggregate of crushed shells. A classic boardwalk leads to a compact entry courtyard that mediates the transition from the outside world to the home’s private sphere of beauty and delight. Even the front door, detailed with an oversized circular cast-brass handle fabricated by the Belgian firm Van Cronenburg, announces that something very special unfolds within.
With its walls of pale pink Marmorino-like plaster and floors of smooth nougat-toned terrazzo, the unexpectedly lofty entry hall—which rises to nearly twelve feet—sets the tone for the experience of the home. “We hate white walls,” Kalichstein insists, introducing the home’s kaleidoscopic palette of colors, alternately discreet and daring. The entry volume, as well as the hallway that bisects it, are crowned with vaulted ceilings that play into the symphony of archways and other curvaceous design details that lend a seductive rhythm to the interior. “We focused on the movement through the house and the ease of procession. Each room communicates with the next,” Kalichstein adds.
Artisanal flourishes, custom designs, and furnishings of wide-ranging period and pedigree create a unique sense of place in every room. The entry hall is anchored by a pair of benches adapted from a Charlotte Perriand design for the Japanese ambassador in Paris, joined by an ebullient 1960s chandelier and artworks by Damien Hirst and Jena Thomas. In the living room, the focus turns to a pair of leather-wrapped doors with insets of marble, quartzite, and brass that slide open to reveal a television. The kitchen’s coup de theatre is a wall of cabinetry with a series of ornamental fronts in the form of langues de chat (cat’s tongue) biscuits. In a word, it’s a knockout.
