In its second year in South Florida, Miami Casa Décor not only displays new design trends and technologies, but also serves as a colorful metaphor for Miami’s ongoing revitalization. From the dazzling, external mural to the explosion of color in interior settings, Casa Décor illustrates how creativity, vision and focus can transform something ugly (your basic concrete multilevel parking garage) into an attractive, desirable living space. And because it’s close to Biscayne Boulevard, just east of what’s politely called “an emerging area,” Casa Décor’s show houses have the potential to energize and elevate the surroundings from gritty to great.

Within the 30,000-square-foot first-floor space, visitors can expect replicated lofts, apartments, studios, libraries and gardens and an intriguing re-creation of a long-gone Miami Beach hotel. Outdoors, another 20,000 square feet of gardens is anything but formal or staid.

In true creative spirit, the 35 designers of the show houses and gardens have not been constrained by any apparent theme. But given the sheer size of the space and the raw concrete environment, many settings evoke Miami’s hot new favorite dwelling — residential lofts.

For example, the Lexus Lifestyle Living Room takes an original approach with a design that complements the car’s brand image with the inhabitant’s personal aesthetics. Miami-based interior designer Juan Carlos Arcila-Duque created a dazzling loft-like space that exemplifies the luxury lifestyle of a fictitious character — the chic and sophisticated (male of course!) designer of the Lexus LS 460 and his contemporary, tropical getaway home. A white, curved translucent ceiling is formed of panels that echo the stripes in the “Trend” terrazzo floor and form the setting for a minimalist room staged primarily in yellow, beige and chocolate hues.

The exquisite modern furniture and accessories are by Sipure Design, and the chandelier by artist Michelle Oka Doner. Photographs of beautiful flowers and shells by Iran Issa-Khan hang on the walls. And a wall installation by HTC helps define the space that inspires the car designer’s taste for the best. “This is the new contemporary way to live,” Arcila-Duque said.

Outside, the wondrous garden oasis is based on a master plan by Jefre Figueras Manuel, a pioneering, Orlando-based landscape designer. His sustainable, environmentally aware spaces use real plants, artificial turf, recycled composite wood and glass. Central to the overall design, a diagonal canal lined in blue mosaic tiles unifies the spaces bordered by mounds of multicolored recycled glass tiles that serve as mulch. Rather than a conventional screen of green climbing plants, Manuel created an original vertical garden dubbed a “living wall.” Plants are rooted in fibrous material in mail-like slots anchored to a wall, providing insulation and air purification. The resulting frenzy of color and greenery requires less water than traditional horizontal planting. Covering a second wall is a large topographical map of Florida, depicting both the current coastline and a projected coastline, based on the projected rise in sea levels caused by global warming.

For the latest ideas in furnishings and cutting-edge design, Miami Casa Décor is a treasure trove of ideas, examples and sheer visual delight.