the best on show at this year's design miami

new york-based architectural studio formlessfinder has installed a temporary pavilion at the entrance, made of an enormous mound of  miami’s sand surplus, with a cantilevered aluminum roof structure. located in a big white tent across the street from the art basel venue, the miami beach’s convention center, design miami is offering a platform for emerging talents, museum-quality works and cultural programming with panels and lectures, featuring speakers architect richard meier and media mogul martha steward.

‘it is about functional objects. collectible, but still functional.’ says marianne goebl, the new director of design miami, now in its seventh year and with a record of 28 galleries showcasing collectible furniture, lighting, jewelry, and objets d’art. ‘this is our biggest show to date, in number of exhibitors and total surface area.’

jean prouvé 8x8m / 26.2 x 26.2 ft demountable house, original from 1945 in metal and wood at galerie patrick seguin.

the spotlights were on precursors of prefab houses (in full-scale on display) by modern masters jean prouvé (a number were made but only two apparently remain from 1944, one was on show at galerie patrick seguin) and charlotte perriand (‘la maison au bord de l’eau / house at the edge of the water’, designed for a competition in 1934, but never actually built, now presented by louis vuitton and displayed at the raleigh hotel). cassina showed a limited edition of the famed LC4 and paid tribute to perriand with an exhibition of her photography, meanwhile gallery downtown laffanour had a special exhibition ‘charlotte perriand – a house in montmartre’.

louis vuitton displayed ‘la maison au bord de l’eau’, a never-before built project by charlotte perriand at a design miami satellite event the raleigh hotel.

designboom spotted pharrell at galerie downtown laffanour presenting ‘charlotte perriand – a house in montmartre’.

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OMA / shohei shigematsu’s model in the exhibition ‘four (4): new visions for living in miami’. coconut grove’s waterfront development by terra group and its partner, the related group, together sponsored a design competition, soliciting four teams of high-profile architects to present their visions for developing the parcel. these proposals were unveiled at design miami. the exhibit included the winning design by OMA / shohei shigematsu.

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not to be missed was dutch designer simon heijdens’ collaboration with french champagne house perrier-jouët. he spent a year creating this mesmerizing light installation of 3-drawings in ‘sparkling liquid’.

‘metamorphosis’ gives insight into the ongoing collaboration of designer maria pergay with the italian label FENDI. aged 81, pergay is still designing remarkable objects and products using steel, glass, leather and fur, on show bathed in reflections of light naturally projected by metallic curtain strips.

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walter lamb seating at mark mcdonald. in the late ’40s, lamb stretched nautical cotton cording across bronze frames to create elegant outdoor furniture.

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jonathan muecke at volume gallery.

‘mystic garden’, a vibrant brass petal screen and plant lamp by algerian artist taher chemirik exhibited at galerie BSL. also the new light pieces by ayala serfaty were very beautiful.

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‘pink void’, by johanna grawunder at carpenters workshop gallery . on show also maarten baas, studio job (see the designboom coverage), alongside random international and campana brothers.

‘gemstone’ table by hella jongerius. galerie kreo also presented new work by the bouroullecs and wieki somers.

Dupont™ Corian® has been transformed into a very thin magnificent peacock feather chair created by uufie and shown at the rossana orlandi booth.

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mini flower offering chair by satyendra pakhale at gabrielle ammann gallery.

venetian glass makers wonderglass launched a limited edition ‘night flow[T]’ by nao tamura, the sculptural light display features hand-blown glass chandeliers.

louisa guinness gallery presented jewelry by ross lovegrove (a collection of 18k gold rings using 3D printing technology titled ‘foliates’). other artists on display included antony gormley, anish kapoor and alexander calder.

caroline van hoek of brussels presented the works of dutch designer gijs bakker. ‘go for gold’ jewelry that emphases the importance of gold in the competitive world of sports, business and politics. the nadal and ronaldo brooches, by laser-welding gold on titanium or by laser-cutting gold under titanium, literally go for gold.

AUDI has used the event to debut a one-off installation – related to their racing program, called ‘fragmentation’. using the audi sport signature red rhombus emblem as a starting point, german design firm schmidhuber extended the shape into a three-dimensional module. it formed the backdrop for two audi R8 models on display, a red R8 spyder and a silver R8 LMS ultra customer racecar. AUDI has been the exclusive automotive sponsor of design miami since 2006. AUDI is not only playing the classic role of sponsor there, but is also actively appearing as an exhibitor and as a source of inspiration that seeks creative dialogue.

R 20th century gallery showed the latest hand-made works from german toy-maker renate müller. her creations were tested by psychiatric hospitals and clinics in the ’70ies and were used for balance training and orthopedic exercise as well as for sensory exercises and hand-eye coordination.

swarovski crystal palace’s mangue groove installation by guilherme torres.

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circuit boards, computer chips and wires form furniture designed by benjamin rollins caldwell, on display at the industry gallery’s booth.

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