The post Tropical Perfection: Miami Beach House Has Its Own Swimmable Lagoon first appeared on Dornob.

Ceysson & Bénétiere Gallery Presenting Daniel Firman

Entitled Attitude Jade #3, this piece by Daniel Firman had many visitors hesitantly approaching, afraid they were about to experience a jump scare or a performance piece a la Marina Abramović. It appears, at first, like perhaps a young woman is taking a long time gazing at some kind of artwork mounted on the wall and shrouded by a piece of fabric. But the whole thing is actually a hyperrealistic sculpture made of resin, clothing, a wig, and shoes. It was definitely among the most Instagrammable pieces in an event designed to produce Instagrammable pieces.

The Future Perfect at Design Miami/

If you’ve ever thought that furniture design was boring, even momentarily, take in this booth by The Future Perfect like a shot of espresso for your brain. Presented at Design Miami/ 2022, a collectible furniture fair exhibited as part of the larger Art Basel Miami event, the booth includes an alluring array of fascinating works, including a wool carpet by Claudy Jongstra, a Chris Wolston bronze coffee table, and boucle-and-aluminum club chairs — get all the details about every last element in this photo here.

Leandro Erlich Retrospective

Presented at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is Leandro Erlich: Liminal, the first monographic exhibition of Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich’s work in North America. The exhibition features 16 works spanning more than two decades throughout PAMM’s special exhibition galleries. The works are arranged to create a narrative storyline as visitors make their way through the gallery, encountering reality-shifting interactive installations like Swimming Pool, originally created in 1999.

Mark Grattan at Design Miami/

Also at the Design Miami/ fair, furniture designer Mark Grattan’s sexy mirrored bedroom display was like 1980s cocaine culture softened up for 2023, its hard chrome edges contrasting with soft, curving lavender upholstery. Located in the booth by T&C O.G. Cristina Grajales, the display served up an aesthetic we didn’t know we were craving.

Perrotin Presenting Hernan Bas

Miami native Hernan Bas captured both the attention of festival goers and an excellent sum for his painting, titled Conceptual artist #15 (Performance based, along with a troop of hired actors he takes residence in ‘fixer upper’ homes and feigns nefarious occult activity to stir up the neighbors). Presented by Perrotin, the piece sold for $450,000. The title alone might be worth the price.

Savannah College of Art & Design Collaboration with Cerámica Suro

The Savannah College of Art and Design booth was an unexpected revelation at this year’s Art Basel, displaying works created in collaboration between SCAD students and Cerámica Suro, a Guadalajara-based studio known for pushing the boundaries of what artisanal ceramics can be. Founder José Noé Suro evolved his family’s manufacturing business into a globally renowned powerhouse through partnerships with leading contemporary artists. The vibrant collections of glazed tiles were created by SCAD alumni artists Nicolas Barrera, Lauren Clay, Gonzalo Hernandez, Cory Imig, Abel Macias, and Nikita Nagpal.

Thaddaeus Ropac Presenting Georg Baselitz

One of this year’s highest-selling works at Art Basel was also one of its most striking. London-based dealer Thaddaeus Ropac sold an abstract oil painting by Georg Baselitz entitled Emilio macht das Licht Aus (2020) for $1.4 million. The painting depicts a nude figure partially concealed within black and white brush strokes.

Sikkema Jenkins Presenting Maria Nepomuceno

Who doesn’t love to look at weird, slightly fleshy textile sculptures? Okay, maybe not everyone, but there’s no denying that Maria Nepomuceno’s work pulls you in to look closer and marvel at its complexities. Her display of colorful, organic forms was beautifully presented at Art Basel 2022 by gallery Sikkema Jenkins. This is just a taste of what the gallery has staged using Nepomuceno’s creations, so make sure to check out their previous exhibitions for more elaborate displays.

The post Our Favorite Works and Exhibits at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022 first appeared on Dornob.

These designs are now almost as much of a tourist draw as Miami’s white sand beaches, and when photographer Tommy Kwak saw them in 2019, he decided they deserved to get even more attention. Preserving the towers forever in their prime, Kwak’s series “Lifeguard Towers: Miami” captures the unique personalities of each one. Kwak wanted to catalog the structures as a means of inviting viewers to appreciate and compare their similarities and differences.

The series has been exhibited at Clic Gallery locations across the United States, and collectors have sought out limited-edition prints. Now, Kwak is offering it in the form of a fun photo book of the same name, published by Brooklyn-based specialty publishing house Blurring Books. A June crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter made it possible for Kwak to bring the project to life, and pre-orders are now available at booksellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, with a release date of November 1st, 2022.

If you’re interested in seeing Miami Beach’s lifeguard towers in person, you can expect to get a fair bit of exercise in the process. Kwak says the towers stretch across 8.5 miles of shoreline — and that he burned 13,000 calories in the process of trudging through all that sand. They begin with a striped red and white tower at South Pointe, the most southerly tip of Miami Beach. Along the way, you’ll see fun combos of green, pink, and orange; a funky lime green swirl; an orange one with spiky “hair” reminiscent of Lisa Simpson; a patriotic paint job of Stars and Stripes; and more.

Kwak himself was drawn to Miami Beach by his love of water, which led him to look for unique lifeguard towers first in Miami, then Southern California, and finally in Montauk, New York. Next, he plans to photograph unique lifeguard towers in New England, and says he’s even gotten tips on unusual towers of interest in South Korea and Argentina.

About Tommy Kwak

Kwak’s website explains that his “work explores the transience of landscapes and natural forms through ethereal large-format color photographs. His work has been exhibited internationally, most recently in commissions for Louis Vuitton at their locations in New York, Seattle, and Cologne, Germany. He earned a BFA in Graphic Design from California College of the Arts in 2002 and completed photography courses at International Center of Photography from 2006 to 2008.”

“In 2010 and 2016, Tommy participated in the SIM Residency program in Reykjavík, Iceland as well as the international arts festival, Villa Reykjavík. Tommy grew up outside of Chicago, lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY for 13 years, and now resides in Montclair, NJ. He has been a member of Fowler Arts Collective in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and SONYA (South of Navy Yard Artists).”

The post Tommy Kwak Captures the Candy-Colored Lifeguard Towers of Miami Beach in a New Photo Book first appeared on Dornob.

In an interview with Business Insider, North Miami Beach commissioner Michael Joseph said the plan would alleviate a lot of traffic, and that commuters and visitors alike would benefit from a tunnel connecting the city center to the beach. The cost per mile would be “a fraction of what is seen in other types of mass transit projects proposed in South Florida, while the construction would not be disruptive to the local economy.”

If you’re wondering how, exactly, this would work, look to the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop as an example. Part of The Boring Company’s plan for an eventual 29-mile tunnel system which will connect Teslas to more than 50 stations across Las Vegas, this 1.7-mile tunnel network opened in April 2021 and has three stops. Built in about one year using the Godot Tunnel Boring Machine at a cost of $47 million, the tunnel is able to ferry thousands of visitors around the Las Vegas Convention Center area, reducing a 45-minute walk to about two minutes. The company says it will eventually enable large conventions with upwards of 100,000 attendees to occur without road closures or disruptions to street traffic. Even better, the trip is free for convention center visitors.

The Boring Company’s renderings for such tunnel projects once included 16-passenger public transit vehicles, but now, they’ve been replaced by Tesla Model 3 cars holding up to five people at a time. And while the company previously said the vehicles could go up to 155 miles per hour, the cars within the Las Vegas loop are only going about 50. The point seems to be using existing technology to make a difference now, with Musk claiming that incremental advances in technology could allow different types of vehicles or connections to subterranean Hyperloop rail systems. But Musk has a penchant for making big announcements and then changing his mind, so it’s unclear exactly how this project will evolve.

Skeptics have called these tunnels little more than brief Tesla test drives, and a bid to sell more of Musk’s cars. The tunnel proposals for various cities have also drawn a lot of criticism and controversy. Projects in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Baltimore seem to have faltered, and The Boring Company website no longer even mentions them. Civil engineering experts and tunneling industry veterans call into question Musk’s claims that his company can bore tunnels faster and cheaper than ever before. In Los Angeles in particular, the Boring Company dug a tunnel 40 feet beneath a low-income part of the county without even informing the local community.

In Florida, where the water table is much higher than average, one has to wonder just how safe the tunnels will be from flooding. It seems like there are a lot of kinks to be worked out in these plans, but as usual, Musk is simply boring straight ahead with his plans, apparently planning to figure it out as he goes.

The post Elon Musk Aims to Solve Miami Traffic Problems with a 6.2-Mile Tunnel first appeared on Dornob.

Before this year’s event, galleries had to have a physical location to participate – but the abolishment of that outdated rule has released a refreshing torrent of creativity and far more works from artists of color than usual. Big names, brand new names, and everyone in between demand our attention alongside a new focus on NFTs. Here are some highlights:

Tributes to Virgil Abloh

Designer Virgil Abloh’s presence was felt all over the event, from his portrait in a Wynwood mural by graffiti artist Alec Monopoly to a tribute by French fashion house Louis Vuitton. This July, a few months before his death at age 41 from a rare form of cancer, Abloh became the most powerful Black executive in luxury fashion when LVMH bought a 60-percent stake in his line Off-White. Louis Vuitton put Abloh’s final fashion collection on display November 30th at the Miami Marine Stadium and spelled out the words “Virgil was here” with a drone in the dark sky, followed by fireworks and a concert featuring Erykah Badu and Kid Cudi.

Mercedes-Benz also went ahead with unveiling its collaboration with Abloh, with the blessing of his family. They turned what was initially going to be a low-key press event viewing of his solar-powered electric battery car, “Project MAYBACH,” into a full-fledged tribute.

The Banana Guy Returns

Remember how some guy duct-taped a banana to the wall of a gallery at Art Basel Miami 2019 and completely stole the show? Artist Maurizio Cattelan came away from that stunt with $120,000, and now he’s back with some stuffed dead pigeons. 56 of the taxidermied birds perch along the walls of dealer Emmaneul Perrotin’s booth, with one grouping, titled “Ghost,” asking $350,000, and the other listed at $210,000.

As Cattelan told The Art Newspaper, “The pigeons are ‘observing’ from above the movements of the visitors below, suggesting a different confine between inside and outside, what is seen and who is seeing. We live in a society where we are under constant surveillance, like being in The Truman Show; up to the very end you don’t know if you’re the subject or object of what’s going on.”

Rubell Museum Artist in Residence Otis Kwame Kye Qaicoe

The Rubell Museum of Art unveiled paintings and sculptures by its three artists in residence, including Genesis Tramaine, Kennedy Yanko, and Otis Kwame Kye Qaicoe, and they’re all incredible. Qaicoe’s work in particular stands out for its starkness, its stunning graphic nature, and its scale. The Ghanan painter creates portraits of family and friends, using color and texture to express their individuality. The show also reinterprets the American vision of the cowboy using Ghanan models.

Betye Saar: Serious Moonlight

95-year-old artist Betye Saar displayed her rarely-seen 1980s installation “Serious Moonlight,” influenced by her travels to Haiti, Mexico, and Nigeria. The large-scale works immerse viewers in symbolism from each place, incorporating ritual, spiritual, and cosmological imagery in relation to the African-American experience and the African diaspora.

Fendi x Mabeo Studio

Fendi teamed up with Botswana-based furniture designer Peter Mabeo to create a capsule of 10 wooden pieces inspired by elements of the Roman fashion house’s style and history. The works, called the Kompa Collection, also highlight the creativity and skill of the craftspeople of Mabeo’s workshop. They’re elegant, curvy, and unexpected, applying locally sourced dark timber to galvanized metal that has been cut, hammered, shaped, and folded by hand.

Intricate Tapestries by Qualeasha Wood

There will be no forgetting the name of Qualeasha Wood, an immensely talented young artist who displayed her work for the first time at Kendra Jayne Patrick’s booth this year. Her work is an examination of the identity of Black femmes, combining self-portraits, tapestry work, digital cursors and pop-up windows, and Catholic iconography into gorgeous scenes that leave visitors gasping in amazement.

Banksy’s 10,000-Particle NFT

Crypto and NFT art went on display for the first time at this year’s Art Basel, with exhibition and digital galleries showing off the blockchain-enabled tokens. They included the “world’s first living NFT,” coded into the DNA of a living bacterial organism, a series of NFT-only works by Cube Art Fair, and an “interactive” exhibition of NFTs made in collaboration with open source blockchain Tezos called “Humans + Machines: NFTs and the Ever-Evolving World of Art,” where viewers could create AI self-portraits and turn them into their own NFTs. But none got more attention than former Christie’s executive Louis Gouzer’s new NFT company, Particle, mainly for their sale of Banksy’s 2005 painting “Love Is In the Air,” which Gouzer purchased in May for $12.9 million and divided into 10,000 pieces to be sold as individual NFTs.

That’s right – he’s basically cutting up a Banksy work into thousands of individual fragments to allow “a much wider audience to be part of a collecting experience,” as he told The New York Times. Each unique square will be sold as its own NFT for about $1,500. Unsurprisingly, more traditional art collectors and galleries are skeptical of the whole NFT concept, at least as it translates to buyers’ desires to own valuable art.

The post The Coolest and Most Controversial Works at Art Basel Miami Beach 2021 first appeared on Dornob.

If that last sentence has you scratching your head, you’re not alone. Even the real estate agent who scored the listing was confused at first. “When it was explained that this house was bought by this German shepherd, I was like, ‘What are you talking about? I’m not following you’,” says Ruthie Assouline, who is facilitating the sale along with her husband Ethan.

When they had their first real estate “meeting,” the friendly pooch greeted his agent with a face-full of slobbery kisses.

Gunther VI is the fourth canine heir to a multimillion-dollar trust established by the late German countess Karlotta Liebenstein. When she passed in 1992, she left the enormous fortune to her dog at the time, Gunther III, the great-grandfather of the current dog inheritor.

His luxurious life is arranged and cared for by a group of handlers who make sure he sees the world, with trips to places like Milan and the Bahamas. At home in his 51,000-square-foot Florida palace, Gunther VI enjoys daily meals crafted by a permanent chef from premium meats, vegetables, and rice, as well as the occasional bowl of caviar. He trains in obedience skills each day with his personal trainer. The rest of Gunther’s day is spent lounging around the pool and napping on a red velvet divan in the “Material Girl”‘s former master bedroom over gorgeous views of the Biscayne Bay.

“He literally sleeps overlooking the most magnificent view in an Italian custom bed in the former bedroom of the greatest pop star in the world,” Assouline told reporters.

The pampered pooch’s $500 million worth of finances are managed by a board of trustees, who make the decisions about when to buy and sell Gunther’s real estate. With housing inventory so tight and prices skyrocketing, the board felt now was a good time to offload the Miami Beach property. They’ve also purchased a men’s soccer team and a women’s swimming team in his name, and he attends their competitions as often as possible.

Board member Carla Riccitelli has taken care of the last three doggie heirs and has high praise for the current Gunther.

“He’s not aggressive at all,” she told the Associated Press. “He’s very good with other animals. They’re very protective with their owner, with their people. They like to have the family around so I usually invite friends with other dogs over.”

Riccitelli brings him to her Tuscan home for part of the year, where he shares the abode with her own two dogs, six cats, and handful of chickens.

After buying his 1.2-acre Florida property from Madonna two decades ago for $7.5 million, Gunther stands to make a tidy profit with this sale. The pop star recently took to Instagram to share her feelings on it, posting “When you find out a dog is selling your old house for 3 times the amount you sold it for!” with house and crying emojis.

The new owner will acquire an eight-bedroom Mediterranean style manor complete with an outdoor pool with stone fountains. The gilded portrait of Gunther IV over the living room fireplace is not included in the sale, however.

The post A Filthy Rich Dog is Selling Madonna’s Former Home for $32 Million first appeared on Dornob.

The luxury residence sits on a 0.39-acre lot with more than 100 feet of frontage on scenic Biscayne Bay. Built in 1955, the home hasn’t been renovated since 1960, and it’s still packed full of historic charm without looking like a dated time capsule. Although the listing on Realtor.com states that the home is a whopping 526.63 percent more expensive than nearby properties, South Florida realtor Vickie Arcuri (who wasn’t involved in the sale) describes it as a “teardown” based on the photos.

“True midcentury modern gem located on the most sought after location of prestigious North Bay Rd,” reads the listing. “Enter into this unique architecturally designed home surrounded by lush landscaping through wooden gates and an open foyer entry where you will find high ceilings and great walls for art throughout. The functional indoor/outdoor living makes it the perfect home for entertaining. Enjoy the bay breeze and breathtaking sunset views from the outdoor oasis that offers over 100+ ft of water frontage and unobstructed bay views.”

Whether they really do demolish the existing house to rebuild or just give it an extensive makeover, the process will be par for the course as far as Crawford and Gerber are concerned. A source told Page Six that the couple “really enjoy building and renovating houses,” having already done so with two previous homes in Malibu and Beverly Hills.

It’s hard to imagine paying over nine million dollars just for a lot in an area with a FEMA Flood Zone rating of 10/10, but that’s how exclusive this little stretch of Miami Beach is. Crawford and Gerber will now be neighbors with the likes of Karlie Kloss and Josh Kushner, who just bought a $23.5 million eight-bedroom estate down the street, and a host of other big names in fashion and business, like Tory Burch fo-founder Chris Burch, former J Crew CEO Mickey Drexler, and billionaire Barry Sternlicht.

Other celebrities who call North Bay Road home include Phil Collins, Dwayne Wade, and Gabrielle Union. Nearby Indian Creek Island, also known as “Billionaire’s Bunker,” has recently been in the news as the future home of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Tom Brady and his supermodel wife Gisele Bundchen also bought property there in December, with plans to tear down the current home and build their “environmentally friendly” dream mansion.

Wealthy people continue to flock to the Miami Beach area despite dire predictions about the city’s future as climate change advances. It’s considered the “most vulnerable” coastal city in the United States, with an additional six inches of sea level rise expected by the year 2030. About 10 percent of South Florida’s coastal areas will be underwater with a sea level rise of two feet, and a catastrophic five to six feet of sea level rise is likely by 2100.

The post Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber Buy a Mansion on Miami’s Exclusive North Bay Road first appeared on Dornob.

According to the Design Miami website, this year’s “America(s)” theme brought in a range of “iconic designs and works by lesser-known historical figures” and “a multiplicity of contemporary voices” aimed at presenting “an expanded and more complex, diverse, and inclusive portrait of collectible design in, of, and about America.”

From dazzling to dynamic, the following highlighted works represent the eclectic range of pieces that delighted viewers in the Magic City:

Broom Thing

In collaboration with Berea College Student Craft, famed industrial designer Stephen Burks produced a 360-degree rainbow broom. Constructed from broomcorn and handles and measuring almost four feet in diameter, the suspended burst of bristles is an extension of Burks’ endeavor to use traditional artisanal techniques to help craft traditions survive the test of time. The Broom Thing is available for $4,000 from the Design Miami shop, and all proceeds benefit students in financial hardship.

Dreaming with Lions

Commissioned by Faena Arts, this outdoor sculpture by Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea is a tribute to Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Assembled in the sand facing the Faena Hotel, the 62-foot-wide coliseum uses folded red and white beach towels laid strategically on shelves to spell out phrases from the classic novel. It reads: “Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is,” and “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”

“We are facing one of the biggest challenges ever experienced in our lifetime,” said Arrechea. “I wanted to reflect on this and inspire, reminding the viewer of humankind’s resilience and strength of spirit in these troubling times.”

Curiosity Cloud

Housed in Miami’s historic Moore Building, Curiosity Cloud is a chandelier-like installation spotlighting multi-colored butterflies encased in 22 hanging bulbs of various sizes. The mechanical insects individually and randomly awaken, flitting around inside their cages for a few moments. Conceived by Austrian firm mischer’traxler, Curiosity is “a reflection on the relationship between man and nature, the influence of human activity on the natural world, and the importance of biodiversity.”

Island Lamp

Also in the Moore Building, Stuart Haygarth’s lamp, titled “Island,” works well as a symbol of 2020 even though it was fabricated almost a decade earlier. Comprising a flock of knickknacky birds fitted tightly together at the base, the lamp casts a soft glow for each cramped but physically separated fowl. The birds stand on their own island of space without having room to move anywhere else on the larger reef.

Pink Pirarucu Chair

Created by the Campana Brothers of Brazil, this updated version of the Pirarucu chair is an embodiment of an Amazonian sea creature. Covered in scales chipped out of creamy leather and held up by bamboo legs, it is also aptly labeled with a descriptor tag of “mermaid mythology.”

Tea Cart

The inclusion of Jorge Zalszupin’s mid-century Tea Cart showcased more Brazilian art. The iconic composition was inspired by the 1950s baby carriages in fashion in Poland, where the artist was born. The removable tray sits atop the sleek lines of a brass and wood form. The oversized wheels balance the geometric shapes of the base, providing an overall sense of whimsy.

The Quilt

German ceramic designer Corinna Petra Friedrich exhibited several new works, including her lively vase called “The Quilt.” The hand-made vessel was made by laying African fabric-inspired prints onto slabs of wet clay and cutting them into pieces for assembly once they dried.

Conscious Actions

Erected in the Miami Design District, Conscious Actions is the brainchild of Chilean studio Good Things To People. The open-air structure incorporates three adult-sized swings that cause red slats overhead to ripple in a wave-like motion when in use. After being asked to reflect on “both the energy that we consume and the energy that we contribute back to the world,” CT2P co-founder Guillermo A Parada said the project “invites users to enjoy the care-free fun of childhood again, while also being reminded of the direct impact every action has on our environment and our communities.”

While some of Art Week 2020 has already been dismantled or returned, many of the works can still be viewed online at Design Miami/Podium 2020’s website.

The post Design Miami and Art Week 2020 Blends Impressions of America and the Global Pandemic first appeared on Dornob.

Art Basel is an international art fair that showcases the works of both well-established and up-and-coming artists. It holds yearly shows in Basel, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Miami Beach, Florida. The latter saw a slew of big names pass through this year, including Shepard Fairey, the artist behind Obama’s famous “Hope” posters. Rapper Travis Scott even threw an A-list after-party for stars like Winnie Harlow, Kehlani, and Kendall Jenner. And considering all that culture, buzz, and celebrity presence, you’re probably wondering how a banana titled “The Comedian” stole the show.

Only Italian artist and well-known prankster of the art world Maurizio Cattelan can answer that for us. Cattelan has a long history of making art installations that toe the fine line between brilliance and total absurdity. In 2011, for example, he stuffed and embalmed 200 pigeons and placed them atop air conditioning pipes in a heavily frequented Italian pavilion. The installation even included fake piles of pigeon poop on the floor for authenticity.

More famously, Cattelan crafted a solid 18-karat-gold toilet titled “America” that was recently stolen from England’s Blenheim Palace.

All of Cattelan’s work, including “The Comedian,” makes viewers question the intertwined relationship between money and art. For “America,” the artist used a very valuable material to make something very base and pedestrian. With “The Comedian,” he inverts that idea, using an object anyone can afford and elevating it to an outrageous degree simply because we deem it “art” and him an “artist.” His point was swiftly proven, too, as this piece sold for a staggering $120,000. This sparks an important conversation about what makes art valuable: the materials itself, the idea behind it, or the prestige of the artist (I certainly know that if I taped an aging banana to a wall that no one would be paying $120,000 for it). This in turn makes art lovers question exactly what they are buying into and how much value they should truly be attaching to any given work.

After thousands of dollars spent and thousands of selfies taken, the plot thickens even more. A few days after the banana was initially taped up, performance artist David Datuna walked up to “The Comedian,” pulled off the duct tape, and ate all $120,000 worth of potassium. He titled this performance “Hungry Artist.” This however did not lower the price of the artwork, and the banana was soon replaced.

In an interview with The Guardian, Datuna admitted that he doesn’t even like bananas, eating only around one every year.

After this incident, it was determined that the public could not be trusted with the installation, and it was taken down entirely. At this point however, gallery owners had completely lost control to the pranksters. Soon after it was removed, someone scrawled “Epstien didn’t kill himself” on the blank white wall. This too was covered up by security.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mMSwIQYoSc

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On a street full of original 1930’s bungalows, most of them largely indistinguishable from one another, a secret lurks. You might be able to spot it towering over the roof of its companion structure, as it’s even taller than the palm trees that surround it. It’s nothing like the building it was constructed to complement, yet it’s somehow the perfect foil, an addition that makes the scene even more “Miami” than it already was. It’s literally devoted to the worship of the sun, its three stories all having been designed with reverence to natural light.

It’s certainly appropriately named. A sculptural concrete staircase stands at its center, spiraling from one level to the next and offering entry to the addition directly from the sliding glass doors of the main bungalow. At the base is an outdoor kitchen, which expands the cooking and dining spaces of the original home. On the second level, visitors find a glassed-in master bedroom whose facade has been covered in climbing vines. A curved wall follows the contours of a round bed. But the crown jewel of the project is unquestionably the solarium at the top, where the concrete staircase curls inward to provide protective cover for a rooftop hot tub.

“To face north, the top edge of the curved wall has been rotated 11.25 degrees in relation to the property lines,” explain the architects. “In the middle of the wall, running along the square master bedroom, the curvature is parallel to the existing house. On the ground floor, the wall turns 11.25 degrees toward the middle of the garden. The rotation axis of this twist lies at the center of a spiral staircase, which wraps around the chimney of a wood-fired pizza oven.”

“On the roof of the building is a solarium, where the wall maps the path of the sun on the summer solstice. At that time, the sun’s rays reflect off of the wall onto the surface of the deck. The wall blocks the wind, creating a sense of calm. Solitude can be found under the open sky in this space, which is free of the incursions of everyday life. Time spent in this contemplative space slowly reveals the house’s interactions with the sun.”

Completed in 2015, the home evokes the feel of Floridian wildlife observation towers while echoing some of the city’s common architectural typologies. Hanging out in that hot tub and looking out over the roofs of neighboring houses seems like a pretty nice way to spend an evening.

Photos by Lukas Wassmann, Todd Eberle, and Casey Kelbaugh

The post Verdant Sun Path House in Miami first appeared on Dornob.

That’s why we think Pharrell Williams’ first foray into the world of drinks and dining is sure to make waves, especially considering the fact that San Francisco trendsetter Ken Fulk, French celebrity chef Jean Imbert, and hospitality wunderkind David Grutman are all involved. Welcome to Swan and Bar Bevy: the newest hip offering to grace Miami’s Design District.

The project is mainly the brainchild of Fulk, who’s done a great job of channeling old-school Miami into both the overall concept and the subtle intricacies of this 250-seater restaurant and tropically-themed bar. The result is a blend of classic Floridian design and contemporary sophistication. Yes, this restaurant and bar could not exist anywhere else but Miami — despite the fact that there are hints of inspiration from lots of other places worked into it, making for a truly unique offering.

The restaurant’s circular bar is most definitely a highlight here, painted a pastel shade of pink and adorned with diamond shaped mirrors along the rim of its dropped ceiling. This pattern is repeated in both the carpet and the detailing in the bar panels. The materials are at once sumptuous and familiar, with floral throw cushions and wicker-backed chairs reminiscent of your grandmother’s veranda paired with House of Hackney wallpaper to bring it into the modern era. An eclectic collection of artwork permeates the space and seamlessly compliments all the rosy hues within. The effect is one of exaggeration and excess, but it’s so carefully pulled together that it also feels timeless and comfortable.

Bar Bevy is a decidedly more sultry offering, consisting of a single darkened room that’s dripping with luxuriously patterned wallpaper, statement oriental rugs, dark wood on the floor and ceilings, and the occasional lantern to illuminate the corners and seating areas. The Art Deco theme still pervades this exotic space, though it very much feels like it’s also tinged with Eastern influences. The bar’s corridors and restroom areas provide some light relief in the form of bright white wooden paneling inset with green leafy patterns.

Of course, the biggest draw to Swan and Bar Bevy is Jean Imbert: the French chef who dazzled Pharrell Williams with a private dinner inside a New York apartment some years ago and who is now Williams’ partner in this venture. The menu will feature a list of American-French cuisine thought up by this auteur, of which collaborator David Grutman says: “We’re trying to go simple. We don’t want to overdo it with a million sauces. You’ll notice a little French influence, but it’s not going to be traditional. And you definitely won’t see the same old tuna tataki that’s basically on every menu right now.”

The post Ken Fulk Designs Pharrell Williams’ New Miami Restaurant and Bar first appeared on Dornob.

Originally listed by Sotheby’s at $10 million, this sleek residence set within the W South Beach luxury hotel boasts floor-to-ceiling windows throughout its living spaces and bedrooms to provide some truly breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to Hadid’s 2,541-square-foot personal quarters, the residence also contains an adjacent studio apartment with its own entrance. The final sale price reflects nearly a 50-percent reduction from the original asking price.

Sotheby’s hails the sculptural residence as Hadid’s “masterpiece,” touting not only its stunning ultramodern style but the fact that the home is filled with objects Hadid designed herself, including a white Zephyr sofa and glass Liquid Glacial tables. A ribbon of steel stretches across the condo’s living space to reflect the ocean and sky outside.

Hadid lived in the apartment while designing a high-rise condominium nearby, the One Thousand Museum tower, which is still under construction. The 62-story residential skyscraper was one of the architect’s last buildings.

Born in Baghdad in 1950, Zaha Hadid moved to the United Kingdom in 1972, where she studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. Even her earliest works bear her signature curves, but her design process was revolutionized with the arrival of digital modeling programs, which enabled her to endow her works with unprecedented complexity. Her style quickly evolved to include dramatic undulating elements that flowed and slid seamlessly through each of her projects, all rendered in glossy, minimalist materials and color schemes for a futuristic effect.

Asked to describe her own style in a 2007 interview, Hadid replied: “Virtuoso of elegance. Personal investigation, research, it’s so laden with so many ideas that one cannot extrude a single one, there is no formal repertoire. Two years ago I focused on one apartment to see how many variations you can come up with in a given space with the same parameters. I would work on this repeatedly for days and see that there [were] maybe seven hundred options for one space. This exercise gives you an idea of the degree at which you can interpret the organization of space. It is not infinite, but it’s very large.”

“Imagine if you multiply that to the scale of a bigger space, and that scale to the scale of a city. It is like a pianist constantly practicing — it’s the same level of intensity. It increases the repertoires immensely — it is unpredictable. Some people really live and work within the same doctrine, the same diagram with the same logic. We produce many diagrams to start with and that’s why we have a large repertoire.”

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Commemorating an Iconic Art Installation

On October 4, 2018, the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) unveiled Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83: A Documentary Exhibition, celebrating the 35th anniversary of the revolutionary project that many believe first put the city on the map.

PAMM curator Rene Morales explains that the Surrounded Islands exhibition is a “unique time capsule, a look back at Miami when it was on the verge of the cultural awakening that eventually led to Art Basel. Christo also fueled the evolution of South Beach, which was kind of a dicey area in the early 80s. He had his friends and collectors, including sophisticated Europeans, stay in little funky hotels on Ocean Drive. They were all captivated by South Beach.”

Those Psycho 70s

Whether you lived through the actual decade or have just heard stories, you probably know that the 1970s were wild and wacky in a number of ways — especially in the art world. Among the most influential artists of the day were Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude. Their art installation off the coast of Miami’s South Beach is one of the most momentous works in recent history and is largely credited with giving rise to Miami’s still-thriving art scene.

Christo vividly recalls the time when the Surrounded Islands concept was born. He says: “In the 1970s, when we first visited Miami, we were always driving back and forth across the causeways. That’s when the idea came to Jeanne-Claude to surround the lush uninhabited islands we saw in Biscayne Bay with fabric, create a presence that would be visible for miles. We wanted to make something that reflected our vision of this strange American city, perched between the ocean and the dense vegetation of the Everglades. The humid air in Miami can be so thick and hazy, and we decided to use a rich and bright shade of pink, a color that would also reflect the tropics and Latin culture.”

Creativity Takes Time

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s vision was clear from the beginning, but the details were teeming with devils that needed to be conquered. Despite the fact that Christo funds all his projects by selling preliminary drawings and collages of them, money wasn’t a problem. The main hold up was in the red tape he had to maneuver through to obtain approval permits from agencies like the Miami-Dade County Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The nonstop meetings surrounding the project were frequently recorded on film by the Maysles brothers (of Grey Gardens fame) for the documentary Islands, footage from which is currently being shown at the PAMM exhibition.

The Anticipation Ends

On May 7, 1983, after three years of hard work, Christo and Jeanne-Claude unveiled their finished project: a seven-mile-long strand of gigantic pink water lilies running from the Venetian Causeway to Broad Causeway. The installation’s 11 total islands are surrounded by 6.5 million square feet of pink polypropylene fabric, with 200 feet of floating fabric protruding out into the water. To this day, the spectacle remains one of Miami’s most popular attractions.

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Some hotels rely on their distinctive interior designs to draw in guests. Frequent travelers may start to feel like all their hotels look the same after a while. The difference between hotel A in Atlanta and hotel B in Houston becomes indistinguishable in a blur of neutral colors. But the Blue Moon Hotel in Miami is definitely a place that’s distinguishable. After a major renovation in 2015, it became memorable in a powerfully colorful way.

The Blue Moon is located in the Miami Beach Architectural District, commonly known as the Art Deco District, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Conceived of in 1997 as a fusion of two existing hotels (the Lafayette Hotel from 1934 and Florel Apartment Hotel from 1940), the Blue Moon Hotel quickly became dated in the years after its opening. When it came time to revamp the complex, the designer’s biggest challenge was remaining respectful to history while also giving it a contemporary feel. In the end, a mix between art deco artistry and 21^st-century modernity was achieved. It’s now a hotel where you can experience Miami Beach around colors and textures that simulate the sensation of being outside even when you are inside.

Painted four different shades of blue, the hotel’s reception desk resembles a vintage dresser, with each level of decorative drawers separated from the others by a metal trim. The handles exist purely for ornamentation, giving the desk a unique identity that foreshadows the tranquility locked away in the rooms upstairs. Blue Moon presents old imagery as something new, giving you the feeling of a place that you think you have been before, but really have not.

Each of the hotel’s 75 rooms and four two-room suites give guests a choice between enjoying the city like a tourist or living like a true Miamian. With their blue accent walls and white and light brown furnishings, the more traditional rooms provide enough visual balance to be comfortable but still exciting. In other rooms, the accent walls are adorned with contemporary imagery and art deco patterns for a more audacious look. In every room, the natural light from a large set of windows creates the perception of a vast interior space.

The art deco theme can also be traced throughout the hotel’s common spaces, from the hallways to the meeting rooms. This theme is only interrupted by the restaurant and pool, where white tables are offset by an array of colorful seating. The splashes of blue and green on the restaurant’s only wall nicely tie the deisgn together, simultaneously acting as a kind of exclamation point.

The Blue Moon Hotel provides its guests with an intimate experience without coming off as over the top or gaudy. The hotel’s judicious emphasis on contemporary design in some areas and the art deco style in others keeps it feeling fresh and relevant. Something like that is usually hard to attain in historic places, but here it seems to have been effortlessly achieved.

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New Spring — Cos x Studio Swine

Back from their success at Milan Design Week earlier this year is minimalist clothing brand Cos in collaboration with Studio Swine. One of the most Instagrammed and talked about installations at the famous Italian furniture fair back in April, Cos x Studio Swine’s “New Spring” is now bigger and better than ever before (as one would expect from something being shown in the extravagance capital of the US). The installation is centered around an artificial tree, from which translucent bubbles filled with a scented mist drop and eventually explode upon touching the ground or coming into contact with skin. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the installation, and they can even hold the bubbles in their hands if they wear a set of special gloves. The piece exudes serenity and has been installed inside The Temple House, an art deco building in Miami, against a white backdrop that further reinforces the feeling of tranquility. Studio Swine says, “We wanted to encapsulate a lifespan of emotions in an instant. To create a multi-sensory experience that was fleeting, but in its time evokes joy and vitality, if only to remain as a memory.”

Juxtapoz Clubhouse – Juxtapoz x Conor Harrington

Urban art has had a growing presence at Miami Art Week recently (owing in large part to the takeover of street art in the neighborhood of Wynwood). Urban artists from all around the world descend on Miami during Art Week to paint murals and exhibitions, but this year, urban culture magazine Juxtapoz took a bigger bite out of the Miami apple with their “Juxtapoz Clubhouse,” which was made in collaboration with Adidas Skateboarding. As part of this showcase, Juxtapoz invited celebrated Irish muralist Conor Harrington to paint a huge 100-foot wall in downtown Miami adjacent to the Clubhouse site. The mural is characteristic of Harrington’s work and depicts a man in colonial-era dress holding an American flag, which in turn is blowing back in his face (surely a metaphor for the state of American politics today). Harrington is a big name in the urban art world and well respected within the community.

Fair Market

Fair Market has been garnering praise from all corners of the internet for championing issues related to race, gender, and identity, something which sets it apart from a lot of the other content at Miami Art Week, which is often considered to embody privilege and a lack of diversity. Located in the Brickell neighborhood (not a place you would expect to be visiting an art fair), Fair Market is a non-commercial showcase of work by exclusively female artists that addresses the idea of gender inequality in the art world. The market resides in a storefront, which itself displays provocative billboards that challenge the viewer’s ideas of advertising and marketing. Elsewhere, a video section plays visual content curated by Micol Hebron, and the “Trade” section allows for exchange through conferences, public works, and performances.

Core — Philippe Malouin

This stand-alone piece by designer Philippe Malouin is part of a Felix Burrichter-curated project called “Superbenches.” The project enlists a number of international designers to conceive of “superbenches,” and Core takes the form of a huge concrete and pebbledash cylinder perforated by giant openings, which viewers can perch at the bottom of as if they were sitting on a bench. Core is a modular system made up of smaller elements that slot together to form a small Brutalist structure, and it was presented by Salon 94 at this year’s Art Week. This 11.5-foot tall structure combines simplicity with raw force and is as powerful as it is elegant.

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