Experiences from the first hand: BDW at Design Miami & Art Basel

Miami Ironside launches Design Escape during Art Week Miami 2014
Miami Ironside, located in Miami’s historic Upper Eastside neighborhood, engaged international art and design enthusiasts during Art Week Miami 2014 for the premiere of Design Escape. The inaugural event brought together the global design industry for a week-long activation inspiring art and design within Ironside’s serene environment to slip away from the frenzy of the fairs.

LAUFEN North America made a debut with its U.S. showroom with a featured exhibition by Swiss designer Tom Strala, along with an installation by designers Konstantin Grcic and Toan Nguyen. Jovan Jelovac. founder and curator of the largest design week in Eastern Europe – Belgrade Design Week— joined Design Escape and led a talk during the week. Launched during London Design Festival, Standsteven – an online shop that offers high-end design products that create social impact—presented its first U.S. pop-up shop featuring a limited-edition stool by designer David Adjaye.

Design Escape inaugurated with a distinctive oasis by world-renowned architect and industrial artist Ron Arad with a nod to his collaborative editions for Italian luxury brands FIAT and Moroso. The design retreat features a Fiat 500 Ron Arad Edition, a modern masterpiece unveiled at Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2015, along with a lounge highlighting Ron Arad seating systems for Moroso to include Victoria & Albert (2000), Ripple Chair (2005) and Misfits (2007).

Design Miami’s 10th anniversary has raised the bar with an unparalleled gallery program and a host of exciting events, collaborations, talks and satellites. With the annual fair drawing in tens of thousands of visitors, and drawing to a close, here’s a quick update of what has been happening at Design Miami/ 2014.

Read more on Design Miami 2014 at Dezeen.com

Olson Kundig Architects’ timber-beam Collectors Lounge has stacks of appeal
When the Seattle-based firm Olson Kundig Architects were invited to create the Collectors Lounge for the tenth edition of Design Miami, they knew they wanted to bring a taste of their hometown across the country with them.

Nestled in an inviting corner of the Design Miami tent, the practice has created a dynamic haven, made from huge reclaimed wood beams, for collectors to take a load off and revive themselves with Perrier-Jouët champagne (of course). The lounge also serves as the backdrop for an anniversary portrait project by photographer Gesi Schilling commissioned for the fair.

`It had to look, taste and feel just like the Pacific Northwest,’ explains Olson Kundig Architects partner Alan Maskin. ‘The concept is based on these historic images of Seattle lumber yards from a hundred years ago, and the way they would stack the wood to dry it. We were really taken with the concept of stacking. And with the massiveness of them, we knew it would feel different from most things in Miami.’
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You can find all of the Gesi Scilling’s pop-up photo booth portraits here.