Jean Prouvé, Kengo Kuma, Ron Arad, Kiki van Eijk, Hiroshi Sugimoto are just some of the names at the 11th Design Miami/Basel, that opens with a rich programming – Robbie Antonio
46 leading galleries from around the world are gathered in Basel to show exceptional modern and contemporary furniture and objets d’art. Throughout the fair, Design Miami/Basel presents a packed program of talks, events and special exhibitions that celebrate design in all its diverse applications, including booths showcasing Swarovski’s Designers of the Future, and the celebrated Design at Large display.
Top: Friedman Benda, New York, Design Miami/Basel 2016. Above: Zaha Hadid exhibition
Berlin-based architecture practice Kuehn Malvezzi has teamed up with the Finnish design company Artek and Danish textile manufacturer Kvadrat to produce a formally distinctive Collector’s Lounge, while works by Zaha Hadid – that have been a strong presence at the fair over the past decade – will be presented in a special presentation by Zaha Hadid Architects, showcasing her innovative work in the field.
Ron Arad, Armadillo Tea Pavilion, presented by Revolution Precrafted Properties, Design Miami/Basel 2016
For the first time, Design Miami will play host to a specialist in prestige vintage car design and it will also see the return of the Design Curio program, showcasing forgotten curiosities, groundbreaking ideas and new areas of investigation at design’s cutting edge. Moreover, this year’s Swarovski Designers of the Future Award is presented to a group of emerging new talents who were tasked with the challenge of designing for the future in a holistic, adaptable and personal way.
Formafantasma, Delta, Guistini–Stagetti Galleria O., Roma, in collaboration with Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, Milan. Design Miami/Basel 2016
Highlights of the 2016 Design Talks program include Andreas Ruby discussing breaking the boundaries of how architecture is viewed and experienced beyond the walls of a traditional museum and the Talks program will be ‘silent’, conveyed through wireless headphones to immerse audiences fully in the conversation.
If you’re looking to hole up in the middle of nowhere, there’s a hut in a box for that.
Back in the days of gloom post World War Two, prefab homes — structures prefabricated in sections in a factory and then assembled on site — were built en masse as temporary solutions for those who had been “bombed out”.
Just over 70 years later, prefab houses are still considered affordable alternatives to building homes from scratch.
Prefab pioneer Jean Prouvé designed his “demountable house” in the 1940s as a potential solution for the housing crisis in France. These inexpensive homes were rapidly built from steel and wood, assembled by hand, and supported by a two-legged load-bearing structure.
Today prefabricated buildings are used as temporary relief for those who have lost their homes to natural disasters, refugees, as well as a quick fix for housing crises.
But prefab is increasingly becoming an attractive option for constructing everything from cabins in the wilderness to high-end designer homes for city slickers.
One Canadian company has even gone as far as creating DIY cabins which come straight out of the box, complete with step-by-step instructions on how to assemble them.
Hut-in-a-box
This Cabin is made from 3D printed bio-plastic Credit: Courtesy Ossip van Duivenbode/DUS Architects
Backcountry Hut Company grew from a need for recreational refuge points for outdoorsy folk in remote locations.
Avid backcountry adventurer, Wilson Edgar, dreamt up the idea of customizable huts that could be easily pieced together on-site by a group of people.
“When someone takes a house project today they basically give up control as soon as they start the project,” Edgar tells CNN. “This is putting that control back in their hands.”
The huts come in two distinct styles — backcountry and frontcountry — each with multiple configurations.
The base model is a studio loft measuring 191 square feet, with a kitchen and living area on the ground level and sleeping quarters for two to four people on the top floor.
However, modules can be combined and the hut can be extended to fit up to 30 people.
Backcountry Hut Company scalability Courtesy: Leckie Studio Architecture + Design
“One of the values in the system is that it is scalable and mass customizable,” explains Leckie, referring to various interior fitout options and exterior finishes.
This, according to Leckie, is one of the key differences between their huts and other “more rigid” cabins. Another is the ease with which it can be assembled.
“The building components are designed to such a size that they can be lifted by two people and put into place similar to almost like lego blocks,” says Leckie.
This is not to say the “kit of parts” can be slung over your shoulder like a sack of tent poles. In fact, the pre-module shell, timber frame skeleton, window system, doors, cladding, and interior fitouts arrive in a 40-foot shipping container and need to be lifted by helicopter to locations inaccessible by roads.
While the hut’s structural components cost $150 dollars a square foot, the interior fitouts can add a significant amount, depending on the client’s taste.
A rendering of a backcountry hut Courtesy: Leckie Studio Architecture + Design
Is prefab the answer?
Prefab homes are often considered to cut the spiralling costs of building a home, as well as the time it takes to build.
“For the average person building a custom home there are so many unknowns, and I think that a lot of people really struggle with the perceived lack of control through the process,” says Leckie.
“What we have here is a product that comes ultimately delivered, it’s a fixed-price solution.”
However, architect Charlie Lazor of Lazor Office — a design firm that specializes in the design and prefabrication of dwellings — is of the opinion that prefab isn’t always the answer.
“There is a perception that prefab will solve the problem of the cost of a home,” Lazor tells CNN.
“There are benefits to be had, and more benefits if the stars align, but it’s not a silver bullet, and it’s not going to solve a budget deficit.”
In 2005 the Minneapolis-based architect first introduced his panelized FlatPak house — a pre-fabricated, configurable house system.
Having designed and built many modular, FlatPak and stick built homes over the years, Lazor explains that there are multiple ways to do prefabrication. It all depends on the circumstances.
“For very remote work, the modular method is better as labour doesn’t exist, or has to come from very far away. So you have to get as much as you possibly can get done off site, and send it as complete as possible.”
One of the biggest challenges Lazor faces, however, is misconceived ideas about the benefits of prefabrication.
“The time advantage can be there but I wouldn’t say it’s a significant enough reason why someone should do a prefabricated house,” he says.
A prefab-ulous future
Revolution Precrafted’s “Sails” by Christian Portzamparc Credit: Courtesy Duccio/Revolution Precrafted
“As the market for prefabricated structures grow, so does the market for high-end precrafted work,” Robbie Antonio, CEO of Revolution Precrafted, tells CNN.
Revolution Precrafted commissions “starchitects” such as Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, Philip Johnson, Ron Arad, Marcel Wanders, and Christian de Portzamparc, to design luxury prefab homes, pavilions, and even furniture.
“Prefabrication no longer means cookie-cutter construction, or one-size fits all design,” says Antonio. “It is moving towards a space where traditional construction methods give way to high-precision, and high-quality architecture.”
Jean Nouvel at the glass and steel Fondation Cartier Pour L’Art Contemporain, which he completed in 1994 (Image credit: Hannah Starkey )
Back in 1987, the same year architect Jean Nouvel gained international acclaim for his Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, he also presented six aluminium objects at an exhibition held by the French non-profit VIA (Valorisation de l’Innovation dans l’Ameublement), to a much smaller audience. They included an adjustable table on X-shaped legs, an aluminium-and-rubber folding screen, and a very slick toolbox.
These were Nouvel’s first efforts at design – none of which was ever manufactured. But since then the French Pritzker Prize-winner has produced more than 100 pieces of furniture and design, from lamps to doorknobs, while turning out major architectural projects such as Barcelona’s Torre Agbar, the DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, One Central Park in Sydney, the upcoming Louvre Abu Dhabi and New York’s 53W53 tower. In 1995, he founded Jean Nouvel Design (JND) as a sister company to his architecture firm, Ateliers Jean Nouvel.
And yet it is no simple feat to go out and buy a Jean Nouvel dining room set. ‘Most of my objects remain confidential,’ he says. ‘Nobody really knows my jewellery, for example. And we’ve worked on chairs few people have seen.’ That’s about to change, as Nouvel sets out to make his furniture more accessible to the general public – and, at the same time, is unveiling the first museum exhibition ever devoted to his design.
Installation view of Jean Nouvel’s ‘Amber Lamp’, for Martell, at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. (Image credit: Luc Boegly)
Last year, at a celebration for his 70th birthday, the architect confided to his friend Franck Argentin that he wanted to give his design studio a boost. Argentin is the founder of RBC, a network of contemporary furniture showrooms in the south of France. The two first met about 25 years ago at a bullfight; twice a year, Nouvel stays at Argentin’s house in Nîmes during the corridas.
Argentin shared some ideas about how JND might move into higher gear. Then Nouvel asked him to head up the design studio, knowing he could bring his keen eye for what sells, as well as his high-level contacts with furniture manufacturers such as Vitra, Poliform and Cassina. ‘I’m looking to work with producers that are serious and significant,’ Nouvel says, ‘and Franck is in a position to talk with them frequently.’
Argentin accepted, taking up the new position in January of this year (he continues to run RBC). ‘It wasn’t my plan, but the challenge excited me,’ he says, sipping espresso from a polished stainless steel cup Nouvel designed for Alessi.
The first part of Argentin’s strategy was to create greater synergy between the design and architecture firms. As he explains, ‘Neither side really knew what the other was doing anymore, even though they all work for the same person.’ He moved the JND studio, located in a building next to the architecture studio in Paris’ 11th arrondissement, from the third floor to the ground floor – a simple but effective change. ‘Jean used to drop in to our offices maybe three times a month. Now, when he’s in France, he stops by four times a week.’
Closer collaboration means that JND can piggyback more easily on Nouvel’s architectural commissions. For each new building project, Argentin meets the project leader, to explore how JND can contribute to the interiors and furnishings. ‘That in turn seduces furniture manufacturers,’ he explains. ‘If we know we can already sell 2,000 chairs, it’s more appealing than saying, “We’d like you to produce this, but we don’t know if it will sell.”’
For example, JND suggested designing the kitchen, bathroom and closets for the sales centre of Monad Terrace, a luxury condominium complex that Nouvel is working on in Key Biscayne, Florida. ‘The client is extremely flattered,’ says Argentin, ‘because he has a kitchen designed by Jean expressly for his project, not necessarily more expensive than the one he planned to buy, and afterwards it will be produced around the world.’ The studio completed the designs in time for Nouvel and Argentin to present them at the Salone del Mobile last April, including cabinet panels made of a patented aluminium honeycomb under glass. Nouvel was particularly enthusiastic about his first bathtub. ‘I designed it in marble and wood to be luxurious and rare, but not flashy,’ he says.
Describing himself as an architect who does design, rather than a designer, Nouvel approaches both fields the same way, using context and function as the starting point and avoiding any recognisable style. His designs are clean and precise – they canlook deceptively simple. He strives for what he calls ‘elementarity’, or a solution that seems obvious once it has been found.
‘When I talk about elementarity – or the essence of a table, a storage system, an office – it’s about how furniture can transform the way we work,’ he says. ‘My “Cases” system is a game of construction that defines the geometry of an office, whether you work facing someone, or with separations between people, or at big common tables. Furniture can provoke evolutions in our attitudes about life.’
Working at common tables in an office furnished with ‘Cases’, the JND team tackles everything from furniture to industrial design to interiors. It has designed braided vinyl flooring for the Swedish company Bolon, as well as a rug made of a single, exceptional sheet of marble for the Italian producer Citco. Its interior design work ranges from a private house in the vineyards of Bordeaux to a chain of new Cacharel clothing boutiques throughout France. And it does scenography, too, such as 62 black shipping containers of different heights for exhibiting replicas of the Lascaux cave drawings in Gwangmyeong, South Korea.
Often, Nouvel will revisit a piece of furniture and improve it over the years – his team refers to these as his ‘obsessions’. It is currently reworking his perforated leather ‘Skin’ sofa from 2008, as well as his 1991 cube-shaped ‘Elémentaires’ armchair, both for Molteni & C. If you visit the JND agency, you’ll come upon more of these obsessions, such as the ‘Oxymore’ chair that he has been tinkering with for more than a decade (now produced by Figueras), with rigid lines but a soft back that reclines. A sleek, cherry-red ‘LessLess’ table is a descendant of one that he designed in 1994 for the Fondation Cartier in Paris.
Against a back wall sits a striking 5m-long wooden ‘Table au Km’, which Nouvel designed as part of a series of limited-edition pieces for the gallery and Galerie Patrick Seguin in 2011. ‘I’m a specialist in tables,’ the architect says. ‘I find them inspiring. I don’t know if there’s a psychological reason – maybe because of their stability. And there’s an idea of mass and transformability. I like tables you can unfold, extend, stack on top of each other. I see geometric games and combinations.’
Geometric combinations are also the basis for a brand new prefabricated house Nouvel designed for Revolution Precrafted, a venture by the Filipino developer Robbie Antonio. In a nod to Jean Prouvé’s demountable houses, Nouvel designed 6m x 6m modules, each divided by sliding doors into quadrants, so the space can be structured in different ways. The units can exist on their own or linked together, and small blocks containing a kitchen, a bathroom or a closet can be attached to the exterior. The walls are insulated sandwich panels, aluminium outside and wood on the interior. Each house is transportable and easy to install in a matter of days.
The prefab house is being displayed in the Jardin des Tuileries in October, as part of the FIAC contemporary art fair outdoor exhibitions programme in collaboration with the Louvre. Just steps away, the first museum exhibition dedicated to Nouvel’s design will take place at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, from 27 October to 12 February. Titled ‘Jean Nouvel, mes meubles d’architecte’, the show is an overview of Nouvel’s most important pieces going back 30 years, including those original objects for VIA. Certain items will be shown to the public for the very first time, such as seating for the public areas in the soon-to-open Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Nouvel’s latest exhibition in Paris traces his most important works (pictured, ’Miroir’ B, 2014) from the past 30 years, pitching them against the ornate objects from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs’ permanent collection. (Image credit: Luc Boegly)
‘It was high time’ for such an exhibition, says the museum’s director, Olivier Gabet, who got to know Nouvel while overseeing the Louvre Abu Dhabi project. ‘He’s one of the great architects of our time.’ Gabet recalls walking through the Musée des Arts Décoratifs with Nouvel and being struck by the architect’s passion for the Middle Ages and Renaissance collections. They decided to go beyond the temporary spaces and install the Nouvel exhibition throughout the entire museum, all 2,000 sq m, including the permanent collections and the Advertising and Graphic Design museum that Nouvel himself designed in 1998.
The show is divided into two general themes. An overview of Nouvel’s various design philosophies, from elementarity to transformable furniture, occupies the temporary spaces. The second part, in the permanent galleries, is a dialogue between the museum’s historic collection and Nouvel’s work, such as the limited-edition ‘Triptyques’ mirrors he created for the Gagosian gallery and Galerie Patrick Seguin.
The mirrors, of various sizes, measure up to 2.3m in height and extend as wide as 3.7m when unfolded. Their glass is slightly blurry and softly coloured, giving a new perspective to age-old sculptures and furniture from the collection. ‘They exist to reveal the space around them, reflecting objects in another geometry, another light,’ the architect says.
Hearing him talk, it’s clear that Nouvel is eager to finally put his body of design on public display, and in such a prestigious setting. ‘To show one’s own objects alongside masterpieces from earlier centuries, you need courage, some pretentiousness,’ – he pauses for a moment – ‘and a bit of humility, too.’
As originally featured in the November 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*212)
JND’s managing director Franck Argentin (left) and art director Ernesto Mistretta at the Molteni & C factory outside Milan, where the studio’s ‘LessLess’ table is produced. (Image credit: Alberto Zanetti)Nouvel’s furniture is the subject of a new exhibition recently opened at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The designer has also created modular exhibition spaces especially for the show. (Image credit: Luc Boegly)(Image credit: TBC)His works create a dialogue with the museum, its history and its collections (Image credit: TBC)On the occasion of his first solo furniture show, we take a look back at Nouvel’s greatest hits, from home to workplace. Pictured, ’LessLess’ table, for Molteni & C, 1994 (Image credit: TBC)’Skin’ sofa, for Molteni & C, 2008 (Image credit: TBC)’Miroir D’, part of the Triptyques series, for Gagosian and Galerie Patrick Seguin, 2014 (Image credit: TBC)’Cases’ office system, for Unifor, 2013 (Image credit: TBC)
INFORMATION
‘Jean Nouvel, mes meubles d’architecte. Sens et essence’ is on view until 12 February 2017. For more information, visit Jean Nouvel’s website and Les Arts Décoratifs website
ADDRESS
Musée des Arts décoratifs 107, rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris
The Matilda Home, a special mobile living unit that can be placed in everywhere designed by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, founder and principals of Studio Fuksas, for Revolution Precrafted house series. Fuksas’ design can be conceived as a smallest living unit in the world, consisting of three-storey with a maximum comfort.
The Matilda Home is a polygonal structure that can also be reproducible by adding new modules, to be adaptable for every region. The design is comprised of two typical units -one of them consists of 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, closet and roof deck, occupying 201 square meters area in total. The materials used for the house are teak wood, marble and steel.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/169660874
”The idea to bring design also in common life attracted us,” says Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas. ”This is a new concept of habitat of house. It’s a mobile home it can be everywhere around the world; everybody can be a client. It’s a modular unit so many of them can be added together like a cloud. It can even be a city.”
”This is not an object, it is a concept, it can be a city, a landscape or simply an home. Easy to build, it can be done in different materials more or less expensive. Matilda is a completely different space since nowadays we don’t need so much storage space, you just need to have a screen. The only thing is important is to have a nice place to eat, to seat and to sleep but also this can be done with something you close when you don’t need.”
”We tried to develop a new formula of the house because also we don’t know who is dedicated and the people who will be living in the house. First of all, it is a house but also a piece of art, sculpture and it is easy to build and can be done with different materials,” says Doriana Fuksas.
The 1-Bedroom and 2-Bedroom units’ dimensions are comprised of 18.72 meters L x 10.80 meters W x 11.70 meters H, while their total areas changing with 155 square meters and 201 square meters.
Revolution is a collection of limited edition, pre-crafted properties, including homes and pavilions, introduced by design & real estate developer Robbie Antonio. The project unites over 30 of the world’s preeminent architects, artists and designers to create an exclusive series of prefabricated, livable spaces.
With a network of cutting-edge technologies and cost-efficient production systems, Revolution is democratizing high-design and architecture by introducing designed spaces in exclusive collaboration with industry leading creatives.
Paris’ International Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC) usually revolves around the gigantic Grand Palais museum with satellite events across the city. This year, however, things are a little different. FIAC’s 43rd edition (running until 23 October) is the largest to date, with a line-up of 186 galleries from 27 countries, as well as an ever-diverse offering including a contemporary dance section and new On Site venues like the Petit Palais and Palais de la Découverte museums.
‘Offering the Petit Palais, such a prestigious venue, built at the same time as the Grand Palais for the 1900 World Expo, was a desire many exhibitors expressed,’ explains fair director Jennifer Flay. ‘And to see contemporary sculptures like Damien Hirst’s white marble Anatomy of an Angel exhibited among the paintings of Gustave Courbet for instance, helps to see things in a new and different way.’
Installation view of Elmgreen & Dragset’s one-day takeover of Galerie Perrotin’s booth at the Grand Palais, one month before FIAC officially opened. Pictured, from left, works by Jean-Michel Othoniel, Takashi Murakami and Elmgreen & Dragset. (Image credit: Claire Dorn)
Flay is also eager to see the Avenue Winston Churchill that runs between the two museums – where several artworks will be shown – restored to a pedestrian esplanade as it was in the 1900s. In addition, the event will also see the reopening (after a decade) of the forgotten corridor between the Grand Palais and the Palais de la Découverte science museum, emphasising the building of links between space and time, as opposed to putting up walls.
In fact, many of the installations outside the Grand Palais will explore the unofficial theme of utopia. ‘Although it’s not a deliberate response to what’s going on at the moment, there is a link,’ says Flay.
Another must-see on Flay’s list is Ugo Rondinone’s installation of ten 5m-high sculptures of gnarly olive trees and anthropomorphic stone figures on Place Vendôme. ‘It’s not an easy space to occupy, and this is by far the largest footprint we’ve had on the square,’ says Flay.
‘6×6 flexible, deliverable house’, by Jean Nouvel, 2016 (Image credit: Jean Nouvel)
In the Tuileries Gardens, Pezo Von Ellrichshausen further explores the unofficial theme with a mock-up of the lighthouse he plans on building in Lampedusa to help guide immigrant boats, built from bits of washed up wood from shipwrecks. Nearby, architects Jean Prouvé and Jean Nouvel contribute with their all-terrain emergency housing, a response to homelessness caused by natural and political disasters. For Flay, this FIAC is more meaningful than ever. ‘We are so thrilled to present these pieces in this context because it makes us think about the terrible situation immigrants are in. But also about possible solutions.’
Houses built by famous architects are beautiful, but they cost a fortune — Revolution Precrafted is aiming to give homebuyers the opportunity to live in famously designed houses without having to spend like they are. The Manila-based real estate firm sells prefab houses designed by some of the world’s most well-known architects.
According to the Revolution Precrafted website, the prefab houses offered average in the range of $300,000, not including the cost of land and site preparation. However, even with those costs added, that price tag is significantly lower than having a famous architect build a residence from scratch.
Some of the big names on Revolution Precrafted’s roster include Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, Daniel Libeskind, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Tom Dixon and Lenny Kravitz. The homes are available for inquiry from both developers and homebuyers themselves.
The new design firm Revolution is selling pre-fabricated, modular homes designed and inspired by some of the world’s best architects — including Johnson and his Glass House.
The shifted elliptical shape is inspired by natural forms and provides passive shading. The building’s interior is split along a North-South axis, creating natural ventilation.
Since each pod is customizable, interested buyers can inquire about pricing with Revolution Precrafted Properties.
Filipino real estate developer “Robbie Antonio defines the art of living by living with art,” writes Keren Blankfeld in Forbes. Antonio launched Revolution Pre-crafted Properties with the aim of offering designer class to his nation’s middle class.
“I want the homes to be perceived as art pieces,” Antonio says of the typical 1000 square foot homes that sell for about $300,000. He has partnerships with such notables as Donald Trump, Paris Hilton and Forbes.
His firm has global ambitions, with buyers from diverse locations such as Russia and Central America. He contracts the building to various production centers. Some of the production facilities are using advanced robotics.
U.S. factory builders…are you watching developments like this?
Robbie Antonio defines the art of living by living with art. The 39-year-old Filipino real estate developer owns a Rem Koolhaas mansion in Manila decorated with MoMA-worthy works by Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami, David LaChapelle and Marina Abramovic, among others.
