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Craig Robins pretty much built the
Design District. Now it showcases Design Miami. |
If
you were a 19th-century romantic longing to build a society
following aesthetic principles, you might find
Miami an ideal milieu. It’s new, diverse, geographically
centered and, more important, it has the right combination
of social and urban possibilities. Actually, design in all
its manifestations has become one of Miami’s forces of
cultural renovation.
Local
entrepreneur Craig Robins, a significant figure behind the
South Beach boom of the early 1990s (and recipient of the
2006 Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Museum Design
Patron Award), has developed one of America’s most
interesting design hubs: the Miami Design District, an
18-block pedestrian-friendly neighborhood, peppered with
1920s- and 1930s-era buildings.
During the 1990s, Robins hired New Urbanism leader Duany
Plater-Zyberk to replan
the district, then he redeveloped the area with the help of
such prestigious architects as
Craig Konyk, Alison Spear, Walter Chatham, Enrique Norten
and Terence Riley. The neighborhood
attracted a
cluster of stores with worldwide prestige, including Knoll,
Poliform, Luminaire, NiBa, Bulthaup, Kartell, Poltrona Frau
and MiaCucina.
Since 2005, that district has hosted Design Miami, one of
the world’s most exciting design fairs. Though relatively
new, this event has international clout, thanks to the
skills of Ambra Medda, one of the fair’s co-founders (along
with Robins and outgoing Art Basel Director Sam Keller).
Design Miami, open from Dec. 7 to 9, has four main
components: a designer of the year award with emphasis on
Miami projects; exhibition galleries from all over the world
showing one-of-a-kind furniture and accessories inside the
Moore Building; satellite exhibitions in the Design District
featuring installations by some of the world’s best
designers; and talks by distinguished design personalities.
In fact, Design Miami 2005 was so successful that it
generated a parallel event in Basel, Switzerland.
Tokujin Yoshioka — a Japanese design maverick who has
exhibited for Hermès, MUJI and Peugeot, and worked for such
companies as Issey Miyake, BMW, Nissan and Shiseido — will
receive this year’s Design Award. From his Honey-Pop
Chair, which sent waves through the design world, to his
recent Chair Disappears in the Rain, to
Stardust, his
futuristic chandelier designed for the Swarovski Crystal
Palace, Yoshioka’s pieces exhibit remarkable technological
skill and inventiveness. His work is featured in the
permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New
York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Vitra Design
Museum in Berlin and the Victoria and Albert Museum in
London.
No one
should miss the galleries’ exhibition at the Moore Building,
a 1920s renovated edifice with a beautiful inner atrium at
4040 N.E. Second Ave. in Miami. The big show packs 26
national and international galleries into four levels of the
building. Chicago’s Casati Gallery
specializes in such mid-20th-century Italian designers as
Angelo Mangiarotti, Andrea Branzi, Ignazio Gardella and
Luigi Caccia Dominioni. Other pieces to watch:
Mangiarotti’s rare Office Chair, Vladimir Kagan’s
elegant desk (1970) and the faceted and sculptural steel,
mirrored glass and fruitwood bar cabinet by Branzi for LAPIS
(1990).
R 20th Century
from New York features Brazilian designers Sergio Rodrigues
and Joaquim Tenreiro, considered the father of modern
Brazilian furniture. Interested in contemporary Chinese
design? Visit Shanghai’s Contrasts Gallery,
exhibiting porcelain sculptures by Peter Ting, or Mattia
Bonetti’s quizzical Natural Lamp, in bronze, carved
stone and jade.
Lovers of contemporary American design can enjoy
Donzella 20th Century,
which represents works by such American artists as TH
Robsjohn-Gibbings, Paul Laszlo and Paul Frankl among others.
Laszlo’s Sculptural Console Table (1955) or Table
of Glass Tiles (1948) with tiles by Karin Van Leyden are
impressive pieces.
Design Miami’s satellite exhibitions are a fertile ground
for design experimentation. Don’t miss Peter Marigold’s
SPLIT.
A British designer and theater scenographer, who started as
a
sculptor, Marigold’s work is driven by DIY solutions and
improvisation. His pieces are attractive and simple. His
installation
involves sectioning timber logs lengthways into four parts
and using the resulting odd angles to generate shelves,
tables and storage towers.
Libby Sellers’ Grandmateria is a show
of
new design commissions from important emerging UK-based
designers. Among other things, there’s lighting by Stuart
Haygarth, “concept furniture” from Julia Lohmann and Gero
Grundmann, and interactive chairs from Moritz Waldemeyer.
For
porcelain lovers, there’s Fragiles, presented by
Die Gestalten Verlag. The show
features
more
than 50 objects in reinterpretations and appropriations,
from experimental and avant-garde to retro. The exhibit is
showcased as challenging tradition while “exploring a new
aesthetic approach and technological boundaries.” DGV has
commissioned Arne Quinze to create unique, limited-edition
glass pieces in conjunction with traditional German
artisans.
Can “chair felting” transform an already made, institutional
chair into a unique work of handcraft? This is what
Tanya Aguiñiga’s show Hardcore Softness sets outs to
do. Aguiñiga will
create felt skins over the surface of preexisting chairs “by
hand-rubbing natural fleece with ecologically friendly soap
and water.” I dig Aguiñiga’s Hole Table
(made of white plastic and filled with holes of
different sizes for a preset number of plates) and her
P-tree chair.
I wouldn’t miss The Farm Project by Mike Meiré,
brought by Dornbracht, the German manufacturers of
high-quality bathroom fittings. Meiré will supposedly
transform
our most sacrosanct space, the kitchen, “into a barn-like,
real-life stage, charged with aromas, animals, plants and
objects, all dressed up with a patchwork of materials.”
Design
Talks gives you the opportunity to hear and see some of the
best connoisseurs of the design world. “How Are Designers
Preserving Soul in the 21st Century?” will feature Chad
Oppenheim (one of Miami’s most accomplished architects),
Enzo Enea (a celebrity landscape designer, with a permanent
installation in the Design District) and other panelists
from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7. Are you interested in
collecting design? Don’t miss “What Are the Strategies of
Major Collectors and How Do the Art and Design Markets
Relate?” from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8. The panel
will throw light on the process of collecting design, buying
through auction houses and galleries, trend spotting and
understanding the design market.
For more
information, visit
www.designmiami.com.
Comments?
E-mail
letters@miamisunpost.com.
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