Archinect - News

David Chipperfield has big plans for the expansion of Miami’s Design District

2023-12-29T15:14:00-05:00

A new project from this year’s Pritzker Prize laureate, David Chipperfield, was announced recently as the architect of a new western expansion plan for the Design District in Miami.

Local developer Craig Robbins made the news public in earlier December via Instagram. The plan will reportedly include a high-end luxury hotel, a residential component, and an undisclosed total of retail spaces. No further details of the project have been publicized. Chipperfield spoke to his vision briefly during an impromptu sit-down with critic Paul Goldberger at the Design Miami fair.

“I think [it has] a very interesting context, because [the district] has grown out of a pre-existing fabric in an organic way. There’s been a sort of intelligent reuse of buildings in a rather agile way,” he said, speaking to the appeal of working in the transformed district and the difference between the European cities he's worked in and Miami. “I think it’s very interesting now to be doing a project there, which ...

Design Miami’s first Parisian edition canceled due to 'security problems'

2022-08-01T19:31:00-04:00

Authorities in Paris have put the kibosh on Design Miami’s first Parisian edition after police there cited a lack of security at its planned site, the historic Place de la Concorde.

The concern led to the July 29th denial of permit issuance by the city’s new police chief Laurent Nunez, who extended his predecessor Didier Lallement’s decision from a month prior on the grounds that the area would present “security problems.” As reported in Le Monde, a source familiar with the case feels the real culprit is a fear of France’s Gilets Jaunes, or Yellow Vest protesters, who previously sparred with police in the same location in a series of public demonstrations that turned violent near the end of 2018.

As a result, the fair’s organizers announced they will be forced to cancel the October event, stating that “the timeline has proved too short to proceed this Autumn.” Organizers also confirmed each exhibitor will be given a full refund and that they are working to find an alternative locati...

Spatializing Blackness: Milton Curry on black aesthetics and urbanism

2017-12-11T15:05:00-05:00

Architecture, like contemporary art in the 1990s and legal theory a decade before, faces a critical moment in theory and practice. What do black citizens of major U.S. cities and global cities have to look forward to in the coming century in terms of urban conditions and their agency in determining how these conditions change and transform? What does an approach to cities that takes into account black agency, social codes and aesthetics have to offer to city-making as such?

CNN Style highlights USC architecture dean and CriticalProductive editor, Milton S. F. Curry, and his recent role as lead organizer behind Spatializing Blackness, a three-part panel discussion on "contemporary thinking and creative work related to black aesthetics, urbanism and the lived experiences of black bodies" at Design Miami 2017.

Listen to the Rethinking the City Through Blackness/ discussion from December 6, featuring David Adjaye, Amanda Williams, and Germane Barnes, below (click here for the full list of the 2017 Design Talks program).

Archinect also recently interviewed Curry — one month into his new deanship — as part of our ongoing Deans List series.

Jimenez Lai, Marjan Van Aubel and TAKT PROJECT unveil their crystalline innovations

2017-06-20T17:39:00-04:00

Design Miami took place last week in Basel, wrapping up over the weekend. One of the installations on display showcased work by Swarovski's Designers of the Future. The crystal empire commissioned three designers to craft a new prototype or design statement, highlighting the crystal and using Swarovski's diverse resources at hand. Established in 2006, the award encourages collaboration with young designers and acknowledges technological and conceptual innovations that work across disciplines. This years recipients were Jimenez Lai, Marjan Van Aubel and TAKT PROJECT.

Jimenez Lai created a terrazzo that re-uses and up-cycles 'second quality' crystals that do not meet Swarovski's quality control. With this material, Lai also created Terrazzo Palazzo. Formed by freestanding structures, his deconstructed palazzo served as the architectural environment housing the installation.

The Dutch designer Marjan van Aubel utilized solar technology to design Cyanometer. Working with the Energy Re...

Jimenez Lai named as one of the 2017 Swarovski Designers of the Future Award

2017-04-11T14:34:00-04:00

Perennial-favorite, Jimenez Lai, has been named as one Swarovski's 2017 Designers of the Future. Along with the story-teller and founder of the firm Bureau Spectacular, the crystal company has also knighted industrial-designer, Marjan van Aubel, and the "design do tank", Takt Project. In conjunction with Design Miami, the chosen designers will put forth innovative projects inspired by the transparent quartz Swarovski is famous for at this years event. While the winners will each create separate pieces, they will be exhibited as a single installation for Design Miami/Basel 2017.

Marjan van Aubel is experimenting with solar technology to develop a series of living light objects and Trakt Project is collaborating with MICRON3DP to produce a series of tabletop objects that will be 3D printed with Swarovski crystals. Lai will produce a surface-based installation for the event while also responsible for creating the overall architectural character of the piece, designing a string of three ...

SHoP Architects' "Flotsam & Jetsam" installation is world's largest 3D-printed object

2016-12-08T13:22:00-05:00

Biodegradable bamboo filament makes up the globe's largest 3D printed object, an installation for this year's Design Miami Fair designed by SHoP Architects called "Flotsam & Jetsam" that will make a subsequent appearance as a site for performances and educational programs in the Jungle Plaza in the Design District by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami in 2017.

In this Art Newspaper interview with SHoP principal Gregg Pasquarelli, he described the process behind the making of the installation. "We worked with two companies: Branch Technology based in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which produced three-dimensionally printed bamboo," he said.

"We thought that could be an nice intersection between furniture and art. ORNL actually broke the Guinness World Record for the largest solid 3D-printed structure earlier this year [when it created a tool to be used for building Boeing jets], so they are breaking their own record with this pavilion."

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