Designer of the Future Award, Swarovski

The new partnership between Design Miami/ and Swarovski for the Designers of the Future Award was a fitting celebration of the program’s 10th Anniversary and the long-term relationship the two organisations have enjoyed since 2008. They unveiled three installations created by three winners of this prestigious prise, announced during the Salone del Mobile in Milan: Tomás Alonso and Studio Swine, both based in London, and Elaine Yan Ling Ng from Hong Kong. These three innovative design practices embody the award’s mandate to recognise designers that exemplify new directions in design and represent conceptually or technologically vanguard approaches.

Picture by James Harris

Elaine Yan Ling Ng – Sundew

Elaine Yan Ling Ng’s installation, Sundew, was inspired by the movements of the tiny carnivorous Sundew plant as it pulls its tentacles over an insect, digesting it. The responsive, twisting, lantern-like shapes of the Sundew are constructed from a variety of light, flexible materials, including Ng’s own non-woven textiles fused with Swarovski Crystal Fabric. Alongside weaving and material innovations, the commission also sees Ng adapt bio structures from nature into interactive elements. The booth is diffused with a narrative of two scents, the first entitled Entice which represents the sweet allure of the Sundew for the insects and the second, The Kill, which has rich animalic undertones evoking the capture and kill.

Studio Swine – Terraforming

Founded by Japanese architect Azusa Murakami and British artist Alexander Groves, Studio Swine were drawn to Swarovski’s association with cutting edge technology. The project they have devised, entitled Terraforming, creates a fictional world of space travel and exploration. With the discovery of a new ‘crystal planet’, the studio investigates the challenges of time-keeping in the outer reaches of the galaxy with Dune Clock, a digital hour glass. The commission also features a cymatics table in which they have used the sand-like Swarovski Xero crystal, the world’s smallest precision-cut crystal, to form the imagined planet’s shifting surface.

Tomás Alonso – 47°

47˚, developed by Tomás Alonso, is a collection of crystal objects – including lights, mirrors and a variety of desk accessories – that celebrate angled cuts and colored effects. During his visit to Swarovski’s headquarters, Alonso was fascinated by the importance of the 47 degree cut – which is the angle at which light either reflects or refracts within crystal. Combining multiple pieces of precision-cut crystal, with colored UV glues, foilings and effects, Alonso plays with light and color in intriguing ways. The booth itself features a central floating wall set at 47 degrees.

The three recipients of the 2015 award will be find here in this video realized by HiFi: