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 Being in Miami for Art Basel, and the 23 associated shows, might be like being in Florence, Italy, in late June: The streets and restaurants are full and queues form outside museums, galleries and other sacred places. For three days it is an art and design Mecca, teeming with collectors of every type. Information breeds knowledge and this week, Miami is a prime place to inform yourself of what's the latest in art and design.
We were there primarily for Design Miami/ 2007 and wanted to share a few exhibits that we took in.  At the opening event at the Moore Building – where Zaha Hadid's interior architecture, dating from Design Miami/ 2004, is as strong and fluid as ever – the Design Miami/ 2007 Designer of the Year, Tokujin Yoshioka, unveiled his latest installation. Inspired by Miami's two perennial weather patterns, bright sunshine and tropical storms, Yoshioka took over the entire top floor and filled it with two million clear straws constructed to mimic the aftermath of a tornado. Occasionally one of Yoshioka's white or transparent chairs, like "Honey-pop," "Pane" or "Rainbow" (designed specifically for the show out of prism glass), peeked through the glowing plastic landscape.
 Swarovski Crystal Palace presented an installation that consisted of dozens of "Light Sock" chandeliers, designed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, hung in an all-black room. Each Light Sock was a mesh bag filled with varying amounts of Swarovski crystals and a single halogen bulb. In three sizes, the Light Sock is meant to offer an alternative to the branching shape of a traditional crystal chandelier.
 A lighting installation that incorporated reused materials was the "Drop," by British designer Stuart Haygarth, who over the course of the three-day show constructed a chandelier using the bases of 1,800 discarded plastic water containers that were collected from a London airport. He tumbled them with sand and water to create a texture similar to frosted glass, then assembled them at the show to form the chandelier. Visitors were invited to drop off their empty water bottles in case he ran out of material.
Max Lamb, another young talent from the U.K., showed two pieces from a new series that combined two of his preferred materials: cast metal and expanded polystyrene. To create the two chairs on display (both of which sold during the show), Lamb chipped a form out of blocks of polystyrene, created a mold and then cast the pieces in solid bronze. The beaded surface texture of the virtually weightless polystyrene was captured in heavy, virtually immovable, metal.  More explorations in materials occurred on a promenade outside the Moore Building, where the Corning Museum of Glass collaborated with the Vitra Design Museum to bring the debut of GLASSLAB to Design Miami/2007. GLASSLAB is part of the ongoing "hot glass road-show" put on by the Corning Museum of Glass. The series takes a mobile glass studio around the United States to demonstrate techniques and the process of glass making. The Vitra collaboration paired master glassmakers with Constantin and Laurene Boym, the Campagna Brothers, Paul Haigh and Sigga Heimis – designers working in an entirely different material from their norm, guiding glassblowing experts to prototype their design visions in front of an engaged audience.
 Artek, the 72-year-old Finnish furniture company founded by architect Alvar Aalto, set up a temporary showroom inside their mobile pavilion that was designed by Shigeru Ban and constructed from a wood-plastic composite material made from recycled paper – 38 tons of it from UPM, the Finnish forest products company. Inside the pavilion was a tower of vintage Aalto furniture from the Artek 2nd Cycle project, conceived by Tom Dixon. In the project, Artek is buying back vintage production stools and chairs from libraries and schools to be resold to new owners, with their adaptations, chips, dings and evidence of use intact.
At One Laptop Per Child, hosted by Luminaire, we were able to see and interact with the laptop Yves Béhar designed for Nicholas Negroponte and MIT Media Lab. Four of the laptops were set up so fairgoers could interact with them – they are delightfully tactile and friendly objects, although the keyboards were too tiny for our adult hands (no doubt appropriate for the small fingers of their intended users). The OLPC project demonstrates the power of design (and a lot of dedicated and visionary people) to transform the world in a meaningful way. Happy holidays from all of us at DWR. And happy belated 100th birthday, Oscar Niemeyer (who celebrated his centennial on December 15).  Ray Brunner |
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| Design Uncorked Cheers! The DWR Champagne Chair Contest™ is back. All entries must be received by Monday, January 7, 2008, so start assembling your materials now. Learn more > |
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| Half Empty / Half Full New Year's resolutions are fraught with indecision. Too easy (where's the challenge)? Too tough (why bother)? Carl Aubock's Optimist / Pessimist sculpture will inspire you toward balance – ensuring that your resolution sticks. See all Tools for Living > |
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Studio Events: Prefab with a Higher IQ 1.10.08 Location: Newport Beach Join DWR and Leo Marmol of Marmol Radziner for a discussion on prefab and sustainable building practices. Remixing Sounds 1.14.08 Location: Beverly Blvd. Prepare yourself for audio-visual indulgence at a record release party for Cornelius' latest release, Sensuous. See all DWR Studio Events > |
| From the Blog | |
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Top Chair Honors Read about our Chelsea Studio event that highlighted the re-imagined chairs from students of Parsons' "Beyond Editorial" class. Read the full post > Read more from the Design Notes blog > |
