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"Growing up in the Brazilian city of S\u00E3o Paulo, Carlos Miele dreamed of becoming an architect. He read books about architecture, and later came to meet and befriend professionals\u2014&amp;quot;an informal education,&amp;quot; he says. As an adult, he found his true calling in fashion, and his sweeping gowns in bright, painterly colors reflect his lifelong interest in the fine arts. But even as his fashion career flourished (his clothing is now sold in more than 20 countries) and he developed an alternate career as a multimedia artist (his videos and installations have been shown at museums in Brazil and the United States), Miele never abandoned the desire to build his own home.  A few years ago he realized that wish by designing a house\u2014a sanctuary, he calls it\u2014in Florian\u00F3polis, a cosmopolitan city on an island in the state of Santa Catarina, off Brazil&amp;#039;s southern coast and a short flight from his apartment in S\u00E3o Paulo. Miele has surfed along the island&amp;#039;s beaches since he was 17. &amp;quot;The nature in this part of Brazil is still very strong,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;I wanted a place surrounded by landscape, where I wouldn&amp;#039;t see my neighbors.&amp;quot; He chose a site in the Lagoa da Concei\u00E7\u00E3o district, facing the wide lagoon from which the neighborhood takes its name.   Miele&amp;#039;s primary inspiration was the rectangular glass houses of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, which are mostly located in colder northern regions such as New England and the Midwestern U.S. Oddly, while modernism thrives in Brazil, glass houses are rare, he says, even though the tropical climate would seem to suit such open structures. (The temperature in Florian\u00F3polis fluctuates between the 50s and 80s year round.) &amp;quot;People are very classic here,&amp;quot; Miele says. &amp;quot;They like to copy Miami houses.&amp;quot;  The enormous glass panes of Miele&amp;#039;s home turn the meticulously cultivated natural environment outside the windows into grand decor. Every wall becomes, in effect, a mural of abundant trees and flowering plants. &amp;quot;On nights with a full moon, you don&amp;#039;t need light inside,&amp;quot; he says. Rainstorms transform the house into a theater.  To further connect the two realms, Miele designed an 82-foot-long swimming pool, with one end in the garden and the other in the middle of the living area, framed by a deck made from pinus, a Brazilian wood. During the day the pool serves as a mirror, reflecting the light from outside; at night, underwater lamps put on a colorful light show.  Miele believes the surrounding environment is as important as the house itself, a philosophy he adopted from the parks and gardens designed by the great Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. Miele&amp;#039;s house is raised nearly five feet off the ground, so that it seems to float on a sea of green. He has encircled the glass box with indigenous rainforest trees and plants. Mango, pineapple, papaya, and guava all grow here. Monkeys live in the trees, and toucans and falcons nest in the garden. The designer&amp;#039;s 11 German shepherds live in a kennel on the property, but are occasionally given full run of the grounds.  Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;Carlos Miele at Home.&amp;quot;  Brazil, Miele points out, is a mixture of nationalities\u2014Europeans, Americans, indigenous tribes, and Africans\u2014and the interior of his Florian\u00F3polis home reflects that m\u00E9lange. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t like a house that looks very &amp;#039;decorated,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t see boundaries between styles, such as modern or contemporary. I&amp;#039;ve collected each piece from a different experience or period of my life.&amp;quot; Many of the furnishings are constructed from Brazilian woods: pequi, nogueira, eucalyptus. An interior dividing wall is made of imperfectly aligned stacks of S\u00E3o Tom\u00E9, a blond-and-russet Brazilian stone. Antiques, among them a massive 18th-century engraved wood bed from Portugal, mix with a Le Corbusier chaise longue and a podlike chair composed of woven wattles that hangs from the ceiling beside the pool. The dining area is dominated by oversize photographs from a performance piece staged by Miele at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.  Miele also has an apartment in New York and plans to build another house in the mountains of Brazil. (&amp;quot;My other home is airports,&amp;quot; he says; he and his girlfriend, Ana Gequelin, a model and swimsuit designer, are inveterate travelers.) But he hopes someday to retire to his place in Florian\u00F3polis, which he thinks of as an extension of himself. &amp;quot;It feels like a part of me\u2014everything open and integrated,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;The only things I don&amp;#039;t like are walls.&amp;quot; Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;Carlos Miele at Home.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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