Style and substance: André Balazs curates ’Design at Large’ at Design Miami/ Basel 2015

View of the 'Design at Large' exhibition featuring a white cave-like structure with a number of people gathered outside it. There is also a grey board with images suspended from the ceiling and white seating along with other pieces displayed in a space with a black floor and background

Design Miami/ Basel's 'Design at Large' exhibit will this year feature a panoply of prefabricated wonders, selected by André Balazs

(Image credit: TBC)

By Rosa Bertoli

last updated 13 August 2022

in News

For the second time, Design Miami/ Basel presents a selection of large-scale works selected by a guest curator. After last year’s stint – curated by Barneys creative director Dennis Freedman, who presented a wide variety of multidisciplinary pieces – 2015's installment takes over the fair’s foyer, greeting visitors with a panoply of wonders selected by André Balazs.

Aptly titled 'Design at Large', the initiative aims to present large works of contemporary and historical design that don’t fit within the traditional fair booths. Balazs has focused on themes of prefabrication and demountability, presenting seven pieces that together create a conversation around the topics of sustainable design, luxury and flexibility.

Balazs' curatorial starting point was Jean Prouvé’s Total Filling Station, the 1969 work commissioned by the gas company Total. Balazs’ interest in Prouvé originated when he bought the Maison Tropicale a few years ago – a purchase instigated both by his interest in the building's design, but also in the notion of environmental sustainability it explored. ‘I think the reason Prouvé is in the show now is that we have come full circle,’ Balazs explains. ‘Prouvé is the original modern designer that mastered mass production, and at the same time it has now become collectible.’

The collection of works on show also includes Atelier Van Lieshout’s organically-shaped The Original Dwelling, Shigeru Ban’s Paper Tea House and Edouard François’ Flowerhouse. Three further pieces include Better Shelter, produced as a collaboration between the IKEA Foundation and UNHCR; a Volkswagen Campervan from the late 1960s; and Maidan by Bureau A, a shelter structure inspired by the protest community of Kiev's Maidan Square. The exhibition is accompanied by moodboards exploring each piece in further detail, and a timeline which gives context to the prefab concept.

The selection presents the fine dichotomy between conceptual sculptural design and more democratic, humanitarian design with a functional scope. For Balazs, the juxtaposition of the Ikea shelter with the Bureau A piece perfectly embodies this contrast: two pieces with similar shape, material and manufacturing methods that have opposite objectives – one an emergency dwelling, the other a political sculpture.

‘Everything in the show,' he concludes, 'was meant to illustrate some of the conundrums facing this whole genre now.'

View of the 'Design at Large' exhibition featuring a green 1960s Volkswagen Campervan. There is also a white structure with a pitched roof, a structure with glass windows and a flat roof and black rectangular signs with white text in a space with dark walls and black floors — The works featured are both contemporary and historical, and include a Volkswagen Campervan from the late 1960s

View of the 'Design at Large' exhibition featuring Jean Prouv&eacute;'s Total Filling Station - a multisided light grey structure with glass windows and a flat roof. There is also a green 1960s Volkswagen Campervan and a white structure with a pitched roof in a space with dark walls, windows and black floors — Jean Prouvé's *Total Filling Station* was first commissioned in 1969 by the gas company Total and was Balazs curatorial starting point for 'Design At Large'

View of the 'Design at Large' exhibition featuring Shigeru Ban's Paper Tea House - a structure made out of paper and cardboard with a flat roof and waiting area. There is also a gold, irregular shaped structure with a rooftop terrace beside it. Both structures sit in a space with dark walls, windows and black floors — Shigeru Ban's *Paper Tea House* (left) is a typically elegant structure, constructed from paper and cardboard

View of the 'Design at Large' exhibition featuring Edouard Fran&ccedil;ois&rsquo; 'Flowerhouse' - a gold and irregular shaped structure with a rooftop terrace. There is also a structure with a flat roof beside it. Both structures sit in a space with dark walls and black floors — Edouard François’ shimmering and otherwordly *Flowerhouse* is a striking modular construction created in collaboration with Galerie Philippe Gravier, Paris

View from above of the 'Design at Large' exhibition featuring a white cave-like structure, a green 1960s Volkswagen Campervan, a multisided light grey structure with a window and flat roof and a white structure with a pitched roof. There are also a number of people around the exhibition pieces — *The Original Dwelling* by Atelier Van Lieshout is a bulbous fiberglass pool house, and 'a model home for the New Tribal Labyrinth’s future clans'

Exterior view of Shigeru Ban's Paper Tea House - a structure made out of paper and cardboard with a cut-out design and flat roof. The tea house is pictured in a space with white walls and wood flooring — *Paper Tea House* was originally devised in 2008, and is one of the Japanese practice's myriad Paper Tube Structures

Two side-by-side interior photos of Shigeru Ban's Paper Tea House - a structure made out of paper and cardboard with a cut-out design. The first photo shows a table, stools and a tube-shaped vase on the wall with pink flowers. And the second photo shows partial views of two spaces that both have a tube-shaped vase with pink flowers on the wall — The House's floor, furniture (aside from a table of honeycombed card) and walls are constructed of square paper tubes, and the latter are connected with steel rods. The prefabrication of each element means that the whole building is swift and easy to assemble and disassemble

Interior view of The Original Dwelling by Atelier Van Lieshout - a cave-like structure with white walls and wood flooring — The cave-like interior of *The Original Dwelling* recalls both ancient troglodyte living spaces while also factoring modern amenities such as as a playroom, bar and dressing room

Two side-by-side interior photos of The Original Dwelling by Atelier Van Lieshout - a cave-like structure with white walls and wood flooring — Unlike the rest of the works shown at 'Design At Large', *The Original Dwelling* was conceived as art rather than architecture – an ultimate expression of ‘form follows function’ that is both an example of and polar opposite to an archetypal modernism

A black and white sketch of The Original Dwelling by Atelier Van Lieshout with red markings that look like people — Both avant-garde and decidedly basic, Atelier Van Lieshout's work is 'a functional sculpture which satisfies all your luxurious needs as well as the primeval man in yourself'

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Rosa Bertoli was born in Udine, Italy, and now lives in London. Since 2014, she has been the Design Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees design content for the print and online editions, as well as special editorial projects. Through her role at Wallpaper*, she has written extensively about all areas of design. Rosa has been speaker and moderator for various design talks and conferences including London Craft Week, Maison & Objet, The Italian Cultural Institute (London), Clippings, Zaha Hadid Design, Kartell and Frieze Art Fair. Rosa has been on judging panels for the Chart Architecture Award, the Dutch Design Awards and the DesignGuild Marks. She has written for numerous English and Italian language publications, and worked as a content and communication consultant for fashion and design brands.