Photoblog: Design Miami/ Basel 2015

This year’s Design Miami/ Basel was, as usual, chock full of high-end, collectable design.  Here is my selection of notable work – and design trends – from the show.

1. Layers of colour, layers of materials.

Tomás Alonso, one of the Swarovski Designers of the Future, showing his 47° project.

Jiro Kamata‘s “Palette”, built from dichroic mirrors which reflect and transmit different wavelengths of light, at the Ornamentum booth.

“Fuzz Bench” by Study O Portable, at the Gallery FUMI booth.

“Block Lights” by Sylvain Willenz, at the Victor Hunt booth.

Max Lamb created a wet bathroom using Dzek‘s “Marmoreal – an engineered marble for architectural surfaces”. In the Design Curio strand.

Tomás Alonso‘s “Lines and Waves” collection at Victor Hunt‘s booth.

2. Gold.

“A Void” 3D-printed, gold-plated lamp by Janne Kyttänen, at the Galerie VIVID booth.

“Brass Bowie Chair” by Zhoujie Zhang at the Gallery ALL booth.

Edouard François‘ “Flower House” at the Design At Large strand of Design Miami/ Basel 2015, curated by André Balazs, this year focussing on demountable, modular, prefabricated structures.

“Settimio” cabinet by the Campana Brothers, at the Galleria O. Roma booth.

David Bielander‘s “Cardboard AU” bracelets are actually made of 18 carat gold. At the Ornamentum Gallery booth.

3. Motion, clockwork.

A timepiece by Swarovski Designers of the Future Award 2015 winners Studio Swine, featuring “sand” comprised of the tiniest precision-cut crystals ever made. Part of their “Terraforming” installation.

Elaine Yan Ling Ng‘s “Sundew” project for Swarovski’s Designer of the Future Award.  Ng’s pieces move like glittery jellyfish.

Detail from “Flutter Wall” by Dominic Harris, at the Priveekollektie Contemporary Art|Design booth.  The butterflies flap and fly away when you touch them on the screen.

“Speed of Markets” by Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet, at the Priveekollektie Contemporary Art|Design booth.  The metronomes tick to speed of the various stock exchanges.

4. Rope, knots, weave.

Detail from nylon-and-steel “Dibi Chair” by Cheick Diallo at the Southern Guild booth.

Detail from one of Sheila Hicks’ “Prayer Rugs” at Demisch Danant‘s booth.

“Table Cocoon 2” by Nacho Carbonell, at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery booth.

“Suspension” ceiling lamp, by Etienne Martin, at the Magen H Gallery booth.

5. Play.

Anthroposophic, Rudolf Steiner-influenced design (very apt for Basel!) at the Franck Laigneau booth.

A nice gallery assistant helps demonstrate Faye Toogood‘s “Cage for Birds” dressing table at Gallery FUMI‘s booth.

“Blow” spoons by David Clarke, at the Ornamentum booth.

“Mighty Ndebele”, “Invader” and “Blolo Space Traveller” by Justine Mahoney, at the Southern Guild booth.

6. Profusion / explosion.

“Chromatropic” print collage design developed by Maison Pierre Frey for Design Miami/’s 10th anniversary from their archive of textile prints. Here seen with a capsule clothes collection by Hentsch Man.

Colours and more colours in Rebecca Hannon‘s “Pinwheel” necklace at the Ornamentum Gallery booth.

Pieces from Jantje Fleischhut‘s “How Soon Is Now” jewellery collection at the Ornamentum booth.

Vincent Dubourg‘s “Bhańga Bronze” is continuously in the process of disassembling itself. At the Carpenters Workshop Gallery booth.

And the show itself was pretty impressively designed …

Olson Kundig‘s “Outpost Basel” structure houses Design Miami/ Basel’s Collector’s Lounge.

Sibylle Stoeckli‘s food-based performance piece is part of Artsy’s collaboration with Design Miami/ Basel, in their Design Curio strand.

Design Miami/ Basel 2015, at the Basel Messe.