Excerpt: WOMA by MVRDV is designed as a porous stack of small, human-scaled blocks that builds upon the existing character of Wynwood Norte. Colourful, textile-inspired façades draw from the neighbourhood’s connections to fashion, art, and craft, while landscaped public spaces and a central plaza create a vibrant, community-oriented setting where people can meet, interact, and feel part of the neighbourhood.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] MVRDV’s mixed-use project WOMA brings colourful intensity to the creative spirit of Wynwood Norte in Miami.
Developer Uribe Schwarzkopf and MVRDV have revealed the design of WOMA, a mixed-use residential building that will serve as a new hub for fashion, art, and creativity in Wynwood Norte, Miami. Providing a total of 163 homes alongside offices and retail, the design announces its presence with colourful, textile-inspired façades wrapping a porous stack of small blocks – a design that simultaneously stands out and builds upon the existing character of its neighbourhood.
Quito-based developer Uribe Schwarzkopf has made a name for their ambitious collaborations with renowned global architects. Their first project outside of Ecuador finds a home in Wynwood Norte, a dynamic part of Miami with deep ties to creativity, from its history as a fashion and garment manufacturing district, to its more recent reputation as a hub for artists. Located on the site of a former coffee roasting company, WOMA’s design draws directly from Wynwood’s storied heritage and is rooted in the neighbourhood’s industrial legacy.
Designed by MVRDV in collaboration with Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design, WOMA will create a living and working community centred on fashion, art, and craft. Together with its neighbour, the nonprofit art incubator Bakehouse Art Complex, it forms a powerful creative duo, which extends the creative axis established further south along NW 5th Avenue. WOMA targets buy-to-live homeowners with mid-market housing ranging from micro-studios to 3-bedroom apartments, offices, a co-working business centre, and retail units suited to a wide variety of different businesses. This diverse community is supported by a rooftop landscape of amenities including a swimming pool, sports terrace, and pet park, among other things.
“WOMA is neighbourhood-oriented not just visually but also functionally”, says MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs. “It prioritises human scale and pedestrian connectivity, while integrating abundant greenery, neighbourhood retail, amenities, and a diverse residential mix – becoming a place where people can meet, interact, and feel part of the community of Wynwood Norte.”
With most of its surroundings comprising low-rise, small-scale buildings, the design is built up from a collection of stacked blocks, maintaining the neighbourhood’s human scale and giving the project a porous quality that allows the creative energy of the neighbourhood to permeate the building. The building is set back from the edge of the lot, allowing for a generous landscaped public space at street level. From here, broad staircases ascend through gaps between the stacked blocks towards a raised public plaza at the centre of the ensemble. The plaza is the cultural heart of the building, serving as a flexible space for fashion shows, exhibitions, and fundraisers – while offering a place for the community to gather between events.
Also fronting this plaza are four specially designed atelier-apartments, intended as live-work spaces for artists, designers, and other creatives. These homes will not only provide them with space to develop their work, but also a ready-made platform for showcasing it to the public through double-height front windows.
The blocks of the project are given distinct façades, with patterns inspired by woven textiles. These patterns reinforce the project’s connection to the fashion industry, while their colours of blue, green, orange, red, and silver, emphasise the creative energy that underpins the project and recall the colourful street art of Wynwood.
On one corner of the building is a particularly notable example of how the building embraces the local creative community. Bolivian-born fashion designer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Rosita Hurtado, who has worked out of Miami for more than 20 years and owns the property where WOMA will be developed, will have her new headquarters in WOMA. Occupying the street-level commercial space at the intersection of NW 5th Avenue and NW 32nd Street, her studio will be marked by a special façade inspired by her work, while direct access onto the development’s central courtyard will provide a convenient setup for putting on shows.
“Cities are not made of concrete and glass – they are made of relationships”, says Uribe Schwarzkopf CEO Joseph Schwarzkopf. “Like Wynwood itself, WOMA is a mosaic: a patchwork of identities, creativity, and community. The façade expresses the neighbourhood’s deep connection to art, craft, and fashion to create a building that could only exist on this block.”
With its variety of approaches aimed at nurturing and growing the local creative community and its energetic mix of living, creating, and exhibiting, WOMA is set to become a new destination for culture in Wynwood Norte.
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