Design Miami/ is a collective global forum - a unique platform where the world’s leading galleries come together to launch creative exhibitions as well as fanciful installations and objets d’art. Occurring alongside the Art Basel fairs in Miami, USA each December, and Basel, Switzerland each June, Design Miami/ has become the premier venue for collecting, exhibiting, discussing and creating collectible designs. This year’s event in Basel played host to a platform of panels and lectures ranging from design and architecture to art and fashion, as well as displaying works of emerging and established designers, curators and gallerists.



Here is a list of Discern’s favourite installations and exhibitions, from the extravagant affair.



Friedman Benda Gallery

Founded in 2007, Founded in 2007, Friedman Benda Gallery is dedicated to presenting established and emerging designers who create historically significant work. At Design Miami/Basel 2016, the gallery presented Amsterdam-based Joris Laarman Lab’s ‘Bits and Crafts’ exhibition, which was described as an ‘experimental playground’ that seamlessly merges cutting-edge technology with traditional means of making. Also on display was one of Laarman’s most recent works, the ‘Butterfly Screen,’ a 2×3 meter, double-curved bronze surface based on the principle of hexagonal cell division.



Gallery ALL

Founded in 2013, Gallery ALL is one of the first design galleries in China dedicated to exhibiting collectible design. They have two spaces, one in Los Angeles and the other in Beijing. Featured at the gallery’s booth at Design Miami/ this year was Janne Kyttanen’s‘Avoid’ chandelier, realised especially for this occasion. Kyttanen’s multidisciplinary work lies at the intersection between 3D printing, and virtual and augmented realities. This oversized white lacquer piece comprises of a glowing circular fixture with an intricate diamond structure. The form of this design is influenced by lie sphere geometry – a mathematical theory, where all lines should be regarded as spheres of infinite radius and points in the plane should be regarded as spheres of zero radius.



Masatoshi Izumi & Koichi Hara’s Stone Tea House Meditative Alcove

This year, Design Miami/ Basel also saw on display a hulking yet hollow stone cube, created by Japanese sculptors Masatoshi Izumi and Koichi Hara. The meditation space and teahouse are made of stone: it is six tonnes, minus the 18 tonnes of stone carved out from its middle and is intended to provide a sanctuary from the hustle-bustle of the world. The installation was placed within the natural surrounds of a spatial intervention named 'In a Silent Space the Landscape is the Sound' – envisioned by Enea Landscape Architecture.



Armadillo Tea Pavilion by Ron Arad at Design Large

The Armadillo Tea Pavilion is an intimate enclosure that was created by renowned Israeli designer Ron Arad. Assembled from five moulded wood shells, it looks like the overlapping body armour of an Armadillo. Each shell is made of repeatable, modular components, which are mechanically fixed together with exposed fixings and stiffening brackets. Be it an informal garden enclosure, playroom, pavilion, or place of reflection, the canopy is designed to be structurally independent and can be installed as a freestanding element with the possibility of additional anchoring where desired. The shell structure comes from the catalogue of Revolution Precrafted, a company that aims to democratize high design and architecture.



Do you like our picks from this year’s Design Miami/Basel 2016? We’d love to hear your thoughts on Twitter and Instagram, @DiscernLiving.