Design: Jazzing Up The Functional

A brash young Miami firm offers more than modernity

Modern architecture—the uncluttered, functional kind—has come to be a synonym for boredom in many quarters. But not in Miami, where a brash young firm called Arquitectonica is creating unadorned, mechanical-looking buildings that startle the eye with their loud primary colors and jazzy architectural stunts. Consider, for example, the firm's Atlantis condominium, an apartment tower with a bright blue grid on one side. Twelve stories up, a huge hole has been cut into the slab. The open-air décor of this "sky court" features a swaying palm tree,...