Architecture
Design Miami 2012 Highlights
The eighth edition of Design Miami/ saw record attendance and robust sales throughout its six-day run in Miami, Florida from December 4-9, 2012. Thirty-six of the world's leading galleries presented contemporary and historic design, which sold well among the 31,000 design collectors and enthusiasts who attended the fair.
Visitors to Design Miami/ were welcomed by Drift, a pavilion created by New York-based collaborative studio Snarkitecture. A floating environment comprised of massive inflatable tubes, Drift resembles a topographical landscape in suspension: an ascending mountain above and an excavated cavern below. The lightness of the floating tubes underscores the mass of the enormous installation, visible from a distance of several blocks. The cascading cylinders of Drift lift to create paths of circulation around hanging stalactite forms, providing visitors with a meandering gateway to the fair. Apertures in the canopy above frame views of the Miami sky and allow sunlight into the shaded pavilion. Filtered light passes between the tubes of the excavated cavern, creating a space at the confluence of interaction, conversation and contemplation.
Dawn Before Time Bench by Sebastian Errazuriz at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
CHRISTINA GRAJALES GALLERY
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s inaugural design exhibition, Design at Fairchild: Sitting Naturally, included eight benches curated by Manhattan dealer Cristina Grajales. Chilean artist Sebastian Errazuriz introduced two new pieces, Dawn Before Time, a beautiful, serene wood seat decorated with an overhanging chandelier, and Marble Bust Bench, a marble and wood bench that rests on identical busts at either side. “I have always found Fairchild to be a magical place,” said Cristina Grajales. “The idea of our artists’ benches interwoven with the beautiful vegetation will be the beginning of a new dialogue between nature and design.” From Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
