Barcelona, Spain-based Estudio Barozzi Veiga has been selected to design a new headquarters for Oolite Arts, one of Miami's largest artist-supporting cultural groups. 

In a press release announcing the selection of Barozzi Veiga, Oolite Arts CEO Dennis Scholl said, "Miami’s visual arts community has grown exponentially over the past decade, and Oolite Arts has transformed its programming to help Miami-based artists grow. Our new home will enable us to better meet the needs of both visual artists and the community.”

According to the announcement, the new space will include studio spaces to support Oolite's artist residency programs, an exhibition hall, theater space, a "makerspace," and community classrooms. 

Originally formed as an organization named ArtCenter/South Florida in 1984, the group took on its new name in 2014. That same year, the group sold its longtime home in Miami's South Beach neighborhood for $88 million and moved offices to the Little Haiti area. Oolite, according to the group, is a "sedimentary rock composed of shells, corals and other organic material [it's] is a fundamental part of the local ecosystem, forming the literal bedrock of Miami." 

Spanish firm Barozzi Veiga is known internationally for a range of delicately detailed minimalist cultural and commercial projects across Europe, including the Szczecin Philharmonic Hall in Poland, the Tanzhaus Zürich mixed-use project in Switzerland, and the Auditorio Infanta Elena in Águila, Spain. Increasingly, however, the firm is working and lecturing in America. Last year, Barozzi Veiga was awarded a contract to craft a series of medium- and long-range campus plans for the Art Institute of Chicago campus. The pair is lectured at both Cornell University and at the Cooper Union last semester. 

Describing the thought process behind the firm's selection for the Miami project, Oolite Arts board of directors member Alessandro Ferretti explained in a statement that “There is a quiet dignity in their work, in the way the designs embrace the art within the buildings while also making them very much a part of the neighborhood."