Design Miami/ 2008 Information

November 16, 5:46 PMMiami Nightlife Events ExaminerJames Echols

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DESIGN MIAMI/ UNVEILS FURTHER DETAILS ON NEW TEMPORARY STRUCTURE 
http://www.designmiami.com/
Opening / December 2, 2008

Public Hours of Admission
December 3-6, 2008
11:00h–19:00h

Address:
NE 39th Street & 1st Court
Miami, FL
USA 

Press Conference/ 12:00h-13:00h
Press Preview / 13:00h-14.30h
Registration Required

Collectors Preview / 15:00h-18:00h
Invitation Only

Vernissage / 18:00h-22:00h
Invitation, Design Miami/ or Art Basel VIP Card Only
 

For the first time, Design Miami/, the pre-eminent international fair for limited edition design, has commissioned a new temporary structure to house the main body of the show. 

Created by emerging award-winning New York architectural practice, Aranda/Lasch, the 43,000 ft2 (4,000 m2) space is located at the intersection of NE 39th Street and 1st Court in Miami’s Design District. The commission marks a thrilling addition to the Design Miami/ curatorial programme, underlining the show’s objective to underscore the inseparable relationship between design and architecture. 

“We’ve always staged Design Miami/ in wonderful historical buildings, such as the Moore Building in Miami and the Markthalle in Basel, but this year we decided to use our venue to make a bold architectural statement reflecting the future of design rather than the past,” Ambra Medda, Design Miami’s Director explains. She adds, “We are very excited to be able to collaborate with a young and innovative studio that is not afraid to experiment and take risks. We see this project as the embodiment of today’s spirit, in which traditional boundaries are becoming meaningless and creatives are working across the disciplines of art, architecture and design. These ideas are also echoed inside the show, where we are seeing more limited edition design work created by architects and more gallerists carrying architectural drawings and maquettes.”

“There were two key things we wanted to accomplish,” Ben Aranda of Aranda\Lasch explains of the final design. “We wanted to make the interior ample and light-filled. When you’re exhibiting furniture and design objects, you need a taller, more spacious exhibition area than when you’re hanging things on a wall. We are using a standard tent system but making modifications to accommodate the design show’s needs, and bringing in light in a way which is not normally done in these structures,” Aranda adds. 

Another objective was to emphasize the fair’s presence in the neighborhood. Noting that a key element of Design Miami/ is its exuberant outdoor nature, with fair-goers spilling onto the streets and enjoying the warm climate in December, Aranda\Lasch incorporated a breezeway around the perimeter of the structure, which, “creates a subtle transition between inside and outside and provides people a space to hang-out.” 

“One of the challenges of working with standard tent technology is that it’s hard to create a ‘public’ building,” Aranda explains. “Traditionally, public buildings usually have staircases or loggias where people can gather, but with a tent there’s just a vinyl wall, there’s no transition.” Aranda\Lasch’s breezeway is the solution to this dilemma, situated behind a highly customized 30ft (approximately 9 meters) tall façade. This stunning outer membrane features a cut pattern of translucent vinyl, which will create shadow patterns reminiscent of light coming through trees while at the same time allowing a breeze to percolate. “We are deeply invested in exploring pattern as a way to open up design possibilities,” Aranda explains. 

The natural theme continues inside with the Palm Court, a central section that is approximately 100ft long by 15ft wide (approximately 30 by 4.5 meters), which will be the site for the Campana Brothers’ Designer of the Year installation. The proportions and ceiling height have been specially calculated to allow room to accommodate a group of palm trees that already exist on the site. 

“The ground seldom shifts within the tent industry because there are so many technical constraints. It’s very difficult to innovate,” Aranda says of the challenges in designing the structure. To realise their vision, Aranda/Lasch closely collaborated with leading US tent manufacturer, EventStar, which is based in Miami. Alain Perez, EventStar’s founder, explains; “The space required new engineering to meet building permits while pushing things like spans and marrying all the functional needs within the design.” One of these challenges was to accommodate the height of the structure, which reaches 40ft (just over 12 meters). 

While Design Miami/ will continue to host Satellite Exhibitions and other events throughout the Design District this December, the new venue will serve as the heart of the show, the centerpiece for the neighborhood during its annual celebration of cutting-edge art and design.

Aranda\Lasch
Aranda\Lasch is an award-winning New York architectural studio established in 2003 by Benjamin Aranda (b. 1973) and Chris Lasch (b. 1972). Through computational exploration, Aranda\Lasch makes discoveries in the realm of structure and space, resulting in exquisite crystalline designs for buildings, installations and objects. The firm has an alter-ego practice named terraswarm, which produces urban-scaled interventions as short films and video installations. Their early projects were the subject of the critically acclaimed book, Tooling, published by Princeton Architectural Press. Aranda\Lasch and terraswarm have exhibited their work internationally in galleries and institutions dealing with design and architecture. Objects and furniture designed by Aranda\Lasch are represented by Johnson Trading Gallery in New York. In 2008 they were commissioned by the MoMA in New York to produce a large-scale installation for the design exhibition, Design and the Elastic Mind. Currently they are working with the artist Matthew Ritchie and arts institution T-BA21 on the first “anti-pavilion” – a large and ruined, three-dimensional drawing of the universe, partially installed at the 2008 Venice Biennale first, and fully realized at the Seville Biennale in October. Aranda\Lasch was selected as the 2007 United States Artists Fellow in Architecture & Design.

About Design Miami/
Design Miami/ is the most prominent and substantive forum for international design, representing a convergence of commerce and culture.
Its annual shows in Basel, Switzerland (June) and Miami, USA (December) bring together the most influential designers, collectors, dealers, curators and critics from around the world. For more information please visit www.designmiami.com.

Design Miami/ is presented in partnership with HSBC Private Bank, whose dedication to innovative international design is an example of its emphasis on the value of connections. HSBC Private Bank is committed to supporting the forum in Basel and Miami until 2010 and to continuing to explore new opportunities together with Design Miami/ into the future.

HSBC Private Bank
Private Banking and Wealth Management Services in and from the United States are offered through HSBC Private Bank Americas, a division of HSBC Bank USA, N.A., and HSBC Private Bank International in Miami.

HSBC Private Bank values connections and its partnership with Design Miami/, initiated in December 2006 is at the heart of its expanding global commitment to design.

HSBC Private Bank is the marketing name for the private banking business conducted by the principal private banking subsidiaries of the HSBC Group worldwide. HSBC Private Bank, together with HSBC Guyerzeller and the private banking activities of HSBC Trinkaus as well as the HSBC Private Banking entities, known collectively as Group Private Banking, provides services to high net worth individuals and their families through 96 locations in some 44 countries and territories in Europe, the Americas, the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Africa. At 30 June 2008, profits before tax were US$822 million for the first half year and combined client assets under management were US$499.3 billion.

HSBC Private Bank draws on the strength of the HSBC Group, one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations providing a comprehensive range of financial services to 100 million customers.

AUDI AG, Exclusive automotive sponsor
Audi is a global company, rich in tradition and one of the three big German car manufacturers in the premium segment. Audi is active in more than 100 markets and produces its cars not only in Germany but also in Hungary, China and Belgium.

The brand with the four rings invests more than € 2 billion each year in order to sustain the company’s technological lead embodied in its "Vorsprung durch Technik" slogan. Audi plans to significantly increase the number of models in its portfolio by 2015 to 40.

Audi is characterized by its special styling and design. Stefan Sielaff, head of design at AUDI AG, focuses on an interaction between tradition, innovation and engineering: "It is our philosophy to create a simple and perfect design - based on our values, to break new ground and create expressive characters, perfect in detail." For more information, visit
www.audi.com.

Swarovski Crystal Palace, Main sponsor
Swarovski, the world’s most prestigious manufacturer of precision cut crystal, is dedicated to its work with contemporary designers. Swarovski Crystal Palace is a revolutionary project that has aimed to create signature interpretations of light and design using the emotive medium of cut crystal.
Whilst celebrating and reinterpreting the rich traditions of the chandelier, Swarovski Crystal Palace has broken barriers, played with the rules and opened a new chapter in the history of lighting, art and design.

Now in its seventh year, Swarovski Crystal Palace has worked with some of the world’s foremost and collectable designers including Zaha Hadid, Yvés Behar, Studio Job, Ross Lovegrove, Tom Dixon, Ron Arad, Tokujin Yoshioka and Fernando and Humberto Campana. The partnership with Design Miami/ has developed from a natural synergy in the support and promotion of groundbreaking new design.

“Swarovski Crystal Palace is proud to be associated with Design Miami/ as we believe strongly in supporting contemporary design and art. I have been honoured to have worked with some incredible artists who have created pieces for Swarovski Crystal Palace that blur the boundaries between art and function. Design Miami/ is an important showcase for the wealth of talent that exists today.” Nadja Swarovski

Press Contact for Europe/Russia:
Camron
Adnan Abbasi/ Bronwyn Carpenter 
+44(0)20-7420-1700
adnan@camron.co.uk / bronwyn@camron.co.uk

Press Contact for The Americas/Asia/Middle East:
Susan Grant Lewin Associates
Michelle DiLello/Dan Schwartz
212-947-4557
michelle@susangrantlewin.com.