Perrier-Jouët/ Ephemerā by mischer’traxler/
Perrier-Jouët continues to bring to life its Art Nouveau heritage with a new design commission by the Vienna based duo mischer’traxler. Ephemerā – a conversation between mankind and nature is the masterwork and starting point of Small Discoveries by mischer’traxler, an extended collaboration project between the designers and the Perrier-Jouët house that will run throughout the coming year. The aim of the Small Discoveries collection is to tell the story of the magical dialogue between nature and mankind, exploring the moments between the unknown and known, being and not being, and to stimulate curiosity through design pieces.

Ephemerā plays with the audience, inviting participation, discussion and questioning. Objects are set in a plain room, suggesting a deceptively simple installation. This ostensibly legible set-up acts as a scene for a delicate game of hide-and-seek, played out through a mechanical and magical ornamental garden. The audience find themselves drawn into an enjoyable, charming conversation with the work, and also with each other.

presented by
 Miami Design District
Miami Design District recognizes the significant contributions of Zaha Hadid to advancing the field of architecture in the ten years since she was awarded the first Designer of the Year award.

For the inaugural Design Miami/ in 2005, Zaha Hadid Architects was commissioned to develop
the Elastika installation as part of her award. The practice’s continued experimentation and research into materials and techniques is evident
in the pieces showcased in ZAHA HADID: Ten Years On. These collaborations are experimental, quicker to execute than the architecture projects, and inspire creativity – they’re an opportunity to express ideas
at a different scale and through different media. The practice sees it as part of a continuous process of investigation in which designs become more ambitious as new possibilities in material, fabrication technologies and design are discovered.

Pierre Paulin, Playing With Shapes (1972)/
presented by Louis Vuitton/
Maison Louis Vuitton has brought to fruition an unrealized design project conceived in 1972 by the French designer Pierre Paulin for the American office furniture maker Herman Miller. Comprising 18 modular furniture designs aimed to be arranged in a multitude of configurations in grid-formatted living spaces, this one-of-a-kind project has not hitherto been produced.

The original maquette, which is now in the collection of the Centre Pompidou, presents six possible floor plans. Intended for serial production, level 0 (ground level) has a footprint that spans all the basic modules the occupant may assemble and disassemble to create a personal living space depending on the number of rooms desired, and with functional flexibility of use determined by the family’s needs and how those might evolve over time. Bolstered by numerous sketches and preliminary floor plans, this mockup remains the manifestation of a visionary and prescient worldview, one that is particularly well captured in Paulin’s furniture designs of the period.

Pierre Paulin, Playing with Shapes is showing in the Design District’s Palm Court 
from December 2nd to the 7th.

Konstantin Grcic/ Netscape
Design Miami/ co-founder and Principal, Craig Robins has commissioned two distinct versions of Konstantin Grcic’s Netscape for both the Miami Design District and for the newly completed Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). Back in 2010, the German designer played off the Design Miami/ fair tent for his Designer of the Year commission, creating a six-point star-shaped structure at the entrance courtyard from which seats made of netting were suspended. The hanging chairs rocked slightly when used by visitors and created a space for guests to engage with one another before entering or leaving the fair. It quickly became apparent that this prototype piece had found a perfect home in Miami.

Buckminster Fuller/ Fly’s Eye Dome
The restored 24-foot prototype of Buckminster Fuller’s autonomous dwelling machine was displayed as part of a 2011 Design Miami/ satellite exhibit Architecting the Future: Buckminster Fuller & Norman Foster. During Design Miami/ 2014 the dome will be on view in the space between the newly built PAMM and the soon-to-open Miami Science Museum, intended as a tribute to all that is possible in design and architecture.

Perez Art Museum Miami is located at 1103 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, FL 33132

For Design Miami/ 2014, ARTBOOK collaborates with bibliophile Wes Del Val on a curated selection of new, recent and vintage books that represent the very best of contemporary design, art and culture publishing. The selection includes important exhibition catalogs alongside new and hard-to-find monographs from international publishers plus beautifully produced volumes from prominent galleries operating in the fields of art and design. In addition, the bookstore features an expanded selection of magazines and periodicals from the inventory of the acclaimed ARTBOOK @ MoMA PS1 Magazine Store.

Wes Del Val is Associate Publisher at powerHouse Books and lives in New York. He thinks there has never been a more exciting time to be making books.

New York- and Los Angeles-based ARTBOOK runs world renowned museum bookstores at MoMA PS1 and the Walker Art Center, a long-term serial pop-up at Swiss Institute (SI) in New York, and curated temporary stores at significant cultural events.