Design-At-Large & Design Curio Programme

Design at Large presents large-scale works of historical and contemporary design that transcend the traditional gallery booth. The program aims to showcase ambitious installations that feature interactive technology, performance and microarchitecture. Each edition of Design at Large is led by a guest curator, and the 2015 edition will be centered on the theme of twentieth and twenty-first century architectural expression. So for this year’s 10th anniversary Design Miami/Basel, under the curatorial direction of André Balazs, June’s edition of this program will provide a suitably grand entrance for the event. Within Balazs’ architectural focus, Design at Large presents a prefabricated filling station designed by Jean Prouvé; a nomadic folly imagined by Edouard François; Shigeru Ban’s elegant and light-infused paper teahouse; and a sculptural troglodyte pool house created by Atelier Van Lieshout, amongst other structures installed in the 2000 square meter Herzog & de Meuron designed Event Hall. The structures follow themes of demountability, modularity and environmental awareness, offering perfect examples of a growing interest in the development of manufactured, reusable, customizable and sustainable buildings.

1. The Prouvé’s prefabricated Total Filling Station (1969) was commissioned by the oil and gas company for mass production, and destined for roadside use across France. Now this piece is presented by Galerie Patrick Seguin in Paris.

Total Filling Station/ Jean Prouvé, 1969/ Courtesy: Galerie Patrick Seguin

2. Constructed from paper tubes, Japanese paper and honeycomb cardboard, Shigeru Ban’s tranquil PTH-02 Paper Tea House (2006) poetically reflects the Pritzker Prize-winner’s interest in lightweight, rapidly assembled structures. Ban’s experiments with paper tubing date back to his Paper Arbour (1989) and constitute an important body of work that includes paper emergency shelters for disaster relief and the Cardboard Cathedral constructed for Christchurch, New Zealand following the 2011 earthquake. Now this piece is presented by Nilufar Gallery, Milan.

PTH-02 Paper Tea House/ Shigeru Ban, 2006/ Courtesy: Nilufar Gallery

The fully immersive Design Curio booths punctuate the main exhibition hall of the fair, acting as spaces in which to focus on projects, ideas, and design-related phenomena not traditionally found in the gallery program. Curios in Basel include designer such as Andy Coolquitt’s Guatemala City-inspired domestic tableau and a claustrophobic architectural installation conceived by Kersten Geers and Richard Venlet.

1. Andy Coolquitt‘s Va (2015) was created during a two-week residency in Guatemala City. The domestic tableau conceived for the installation brings together new works by Coolquitt created in collaboration with local craftspeople, as well as found objects, which will be exhibited alongside a collection of Guatemalan majolica from the mid-twentieth century. Now this piece is presented by AG Ossaye Projects, Guatemala City.

Andy Coolquitt examining Majolica during his two-week residency in Guatemala City/ Courtesy: AG Ossaye Projects

2. Kersten Geers and Richard Venlet have taken the diminutive proportions of the Design Curio space and reduced them to the nth degree, presenting two corridor-like spaces. Within, stacks of architect and artist-designed furniture can be examined at extremely close quarters, undermining the decorous distance between object and viewer that otherwise characterizes the design fair visitor’s experience. The installation is presented by MANIERA, Brussels.
Desk/ Studio Ann Holtrop, 2014/ Courtesy: MANIERA

The Design at Large and Design Curio programs provide spaces to consider design practice in its broadest possible applications: from the most delicate craftworks to a mass-produced industrial structure. These on-site exhibition programs allow the collectible design at the heart of the fair to be appreciated in historical, technical and aesthetic context.

Save the dates:Design Miami/Basel will take place from 15 to 20 June 2015.