The Future Perfect, a celebrated design gallery known for its highly experimental exhibition spaces, has opened its fourth and arguably most ambitious location within Miami’s storied Villa Paula. This 2,000-square-foot neoclassical landmark, originally built in the 1920s in the city’s Little Haiti neighborhood, is renowned locally as one of Miami’s most haunted residences, providing a dramatic and atmospheric counterpoint to the gallery’s contemporary collectible works. By deliberately leaving the time-worn interiors untouched, The Future Perfect creates an immersive environment that transcends the traditional “white cube” model. The debut exhibition masterfully juxtaposes the villa’s colorful encaustic floor tiles and aged woodwork with fantastical pieces by designers like Anthony Guerrée, Chris Wolston, and Faye Toogood, grounding global design sophistication in a deeply site-specific, historically resonant space.
The Haunted History and Architectural Vision
The selection of Villa Paula as The Future Perfect’s new home is a defining move, setting this Miami location apart from the gallery’s other experimental ventures in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Built in 1926 by the Cuban government and designed by Havana architect Cayetano Freira, the neoclassical structure originally served a dual function: a diplomatic hub as the Cuban consulate and a private residence for Consul Domingo Milord and his wife, opera singer Paula Milord. Over the decades, the villa acquired a rich local lore, primarily revolving around the alleged presence of Paula Milord’s spirit, leading to its reputation as one of Miami’s most famous haunted houses.
The Future Perfect founder, David Alhadeff, recognized this powerful history as the ideal context for his gallery’s mission to “transcend traditional gallery models.” The architecture of Villa Paula, with its high ceilings, original features, and Cuban heritage, offers a distinct atmosphere that contrasts sharply with the gallery’s contemporary roster. This commitment to location and history creates an exhibition that is both site-specific and globally resonant, leveraging Miami’s position as a dynamic creative center—a vibrant crossroads between the US and Latin America.
Preserving the Time-Worn Interior Character
A critical aspect of the design concept was the decision to leave the interiors of the landmarked 1920s building largely untouched. Unlike traditional gallery renovations that often strip a space bare, The Future Perfect chose to preserve and celebrate the villa’s original character. This intentional preservation creates a rich, textural backdrop that highlights the age and history of the structure, allowing the contemporary collectible designs to stand out in sharp relief against a backdrop of time.
Key original features define the sensory experience of the villa’s interiors. These include the vibrant, patterned encaustic floor tiles—a hallmark of early 20th-century Cuban and South Florida architecture—which line the corridors and main rooms. The walls are finished with time-worn woodwork, and light filters through original stained-glass windows, casting colorful, diffused illumination onto the exhibited objects. This strategy ensures that the villa itself is an active participant in the exhibition, providing a narrative and material texture that cannot be replicated in a standard contemporary gallery space.
The Juxtaposition of Collectible Works
The inaugural exhibition within the walls of Villa Paula masterfully demonstrates the gallery’s commitment to juxtaposing historical context with avant-garde design. The diverse collection features works from renowned international designers and studios, including Lindsey Adelman, Ian Collings, Piet Hein Eek, Faye Toogood, and Arthur Vallin, alongside pieces from brands such as Bocci and Dimoremilano. This eclectic mix of contemporary collectible furniture, lighting, and objects is intentionally placed to engage in a dialogue with the villa’s historic, aged rooms.
Specific vignettes highlight this dramatic contrast. In one russet-toned space, sculptural interpretations of classic Tiffany lamps, crafted by designer Autumn Casey from recycled materials, softly illuminate the room, their modern forms playing against the warm, aged wall color. Another area features a dramatic walnut and brass dining table by Anthony Guerrée, which is paired with dining chairs by Chris Wolston and a striking pendant light by Jason Koharik. These groupings transform each room of the villa into an immersive, domestic scene rather than a formal, detached display.
Material and Textural Dialogues
The material selection and placement of the exhibited works are key to the design’s success, creating a rich textural dialogue between the new and the old. Designers chose objects that offer strong contrasts in texture and form against the villa’s historic surfaces. For instance, in an ochre-hued room, a fantastical, figurative wicker chair and a metal coffee table by Chris Wolston are displayed alongside a chandelier of hand-blown glass disks from the lighting studio Bocci. The natural, organic form of the wicker and the delicate transparency of the glass stand out dramatically against the deep, earthy tones of the original interior finishes.
In another distinct space, the walls are lined with textured green plaster. Here, a large mirror by the design duo Chen Chen and Kai Williams reflects a plush, inviting boucle sofa by Mario Marenco. The tactile roughness of the plaster walls provides a grounding foil to the soft, looped texture of the boucle fabric, while the polished surface of the mirror introduces a sleek, modern element of reflection. This careful attention to material juxtaposition ensures that the collectible designs are not merely placed in the villa, but become integral to its newly defined, hyper-atmospheric narrative.
The Immersive Experience: Gardens and Bathrooms
The immersive quality of the design extends beyond the main rooms and into the often-overlooked spaces, including the former bathrooms and the exterior gardens. This approach treats the entire 2,000-square-foot property as a continuous exhibition environment. In the former bathrooms, the gallery has created surprising and memorable installations where tropical plants are seen tangling and growing out of original fixtures like bathtubs and bidets. This detail—where nature appears to reclaim the opulent space—further enhances the villa’s “haunted” or abandoned mystique, marrying the building’s historical aging with Miami’s lush, tropical climate.
The expansive gardens and exterior grounds are also utilized as crucial exhibition areas. Here, a whitewashed pavilion and a huge banyan tree serve as dramatic, natural backdrops for the contemporary designs, showcasing how these collectible works interact with the natural environment. By activating both the intimate interiors and the sprawling exterior landscape, The Future Perfect ensures that the experience of visiting Villa Paula is comprehensive, memorable, and entirely unique, establishing it as an essential stop on Miami’s influential design map.
