You never know quite what to expect from the team at Snarkitecture, a Brooklyn-based studio whose mission is to ‘reimagine the familiar’. Its work spans both product design, art installations and interiors, while recent projects have included the likes of bubblegum pink screens with cut-out silhouettes for Cos, a ghostly table lamp for Kartell, and a pool-shaped ball pit for the National Building Museum in Washington DC.

Now the studio, led by artist Daniel Arsham and architects Alex Mustonen and Benjamin Porto, has looked to Scandinavia for inspiration for their latest furniture collection, ‘Lieksa’ (launched during New York Design Week 2024), and more specifically to Finland and its renowned tradition of bent plywood furniture, pioneered by Alvar Aalto in the 1930s. 

Snarkitecture x Made by Choice: 

Working with Finnish design brand and Wallpaper* Design Awards 2022 winner Made by Choice, they have created a series of chairs and tables with unusual undulating edges that give it ‘a distinct Snarkitecture look, reminiscent of a mountain range or landscape,’ says Snarkitecture designer Clarisse Empaynado.

‘We designed these pieces with creative collaboration and connection in mind, as they were originally commissioned by our friends at Jayaram Law for a shared workspace dedicated to supporting innovation,’ explains Mustonen. ‘At the same time, the natural warmth of the wood and the distinctive form will be a source of comfort and curiosity in any room.’

Produced at Made by Choice’s Halikko factory in southwestern Finland, the collection – which comprises a dining chair, lounge chair, small round table, and a dining or conference table – is made entirely of bent birch plywood. The chairs adapt a simple design that involves a single piece of plywood that splits to form the seat and legs.

‘After several material experiments and prototyping we ended up with a very Finnish way of making furniture; bending birch plywood which makes the chair new in its form language, and at the same time very familiar in the way its been manufactured,’ says Antti Olin of Made by Choice.

Featuring soft, comfortable, and warm elements to contrast the industrial feel familiar in many creative spaces, the series is also highly functional: the tables feature a concealed compartment to store small items such as phones, notebooks, pens, etc. Its lid can be reversed to reveal a hidden landscape that can be used as décor or a rest for small items.

As well as a distinctive and playful silhouette, the respect for Finnish craftsmanship and close collaboration are the cornerstones of the collection. ‘When different cultures and design languages meet, the results are often unique and unexpected,’ concludes Made by Choice’s Niclas Ahlström.

The Lieksa collection by Snarkitecture for Made by Choice is available from madebychoice.com

A new lifestyle destination has opened in the heart of Washington DC. Named Manifest, the concept boutique brings together a modern grooming space, coffee shop, cocktail bar and retail space all under one design-savvy roof, designed by Snarkitecture. The brainchild of KJ Hughes, a serial entrepreneur and currently faculty director of the sports and entertainment business programme at the University of Maryland, the multi-pronged wellness space is dedicated to modern self-care. 

Manifest: barbershop, boutique and beyond in Washington

‘When envisioning what type of space Manifest would be, I knew that this would be an experiential space unlike anything seen before,’ says Hughes, who oversees the Manifest with partners Brian Merritt and Susan Morgan. ‘In my recent travels and research, I’ve seen several barbershops, retail boutiques and speakeasies. My vision was to bring all of these elements together under one roof in a way that isn’t about haircuts or coffee or clothing or cocktails—it’s about how all these things make you feel. It’s about manifesting your best self through an immersive experience.’

He continues, ‘I knew that in order to differentiate this space from others, I needed to gain a competitive advantage through design and execution. I knew I needed a thoughtful, creative design partner, like Snarkitecture, especially after seeing what they were able to achieve through their installation at the National Building Museum. I knew that Snarkitecture, the “north star” of design firms, could help us evoke emotion and offer a palatable experience that would knock customers’ socks off. I reached out through a cold email and initially received a decline response, but after six to seven weeks and several email exchanges, they reached back out to me with interest in the project. I then caught a train the next day to New York to meet with [Snarkitecture co-founder] Alex Mustonen and from there, the project took off.’

Anchored by the barbershop, a congregative mainstay in communities all across America, Manifest brings a touch of elevation to a familiar experience. Curving tiled walls counterbalanced by warm wooden archways that house individual grooming stations bring a noble sensibility to the service-oriented space, a feature that is echoed through the store’s retail areas. Here, amidst terrazzo countertops and displays, a curated selection from labels such as Rick Owens Drkshw, Issey Miyake Homme Plissé and Engineered Garments stand together, alongside offerings from Manifest’s own in-house label, Of Us. Behind one of the curved walls in the barbershop, a hidden staircase leads up to the speakeasy cocktail lounge, a 30-seat space named Out of Office. 

Back downstairs, the resident coffee shop serves up loose leaf tea from the BIPOC-owned company Aesthete Tea, as well as locally sourced coffee from the Black-owned company Black Acres Roastery for the perfect reset.

‘When we set out to design Manifest, it needed to be a new kind of barbershop, inviting to all people. Simultaneously, we wanted to create a sanctuary, a community space, an institution, a one-of-a-kind experience that still feels like home,’ says Snarkitecture’s Mustonen. ‘The design unifies the café, retail, and barbershop space into a singular environment with self-care and wellness front and centre.’

Manifest’s final component is an apartment on the premises that will be available to book for stays next spring. Named Abode and featuring a retractable glass roof and sprawling roof terrace for the views of the Capitol to be fully appreciated, the residential space takes the idea of self-care to a new level.

INFORMATION

Open Wed-Sun 9AM-7PM. To book an appointment via membership or to shop, please visit the website at manifest.us 

ADDRESS

1807 Florida Ave NW
Washington DC 20009 

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Gufram and Snarkitecture first met in 2017, when they collaborated on a collection of mirrors launched at Fuorisalone in Milan. The ‘Broken’ mirrors (later joined by a bench) feature a stone-like frame that’s in fact rendered by Gufram in polyurethane and coated in concrete-looking Guflac paint: creating an ambiguous mix of hard appearance and unexpected softness. Now, the Italian brand, best known for its radical design pedigree, and the experimental New York architecture and design studio revisit the collection, creating a new edition of pastel pink furniture. 

Pink furniture by Snarkitecture for Gufram

‘Over the last year, we've worked closely with the Gufram team to capture a unique shade of pink,’ say Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen of Snarkitecture. ‘[It’s a colour] inspired by a piece of classic bubblegum, adding a new layer of playfulness to the “Broken” series.’

The collection was created for a special display at K11 Musea in Hong Kong, a retail and art venue inaugurated in 2019 by Adrian Cheng. For the retail complex's annual ‘Art Karnival’ event, Gufram exclusively created an immersive, all-pink showcase debuting this new colour.

Pink design icons: Guframini get the pink treatment

The new pink furniture collaboration is joined by a collection of ‘Guframini’ in the same shade. These miniature versions of some of Gufram’s radical design classics – from the ‘Bocca’ sofa to the ‘Cactus’ coat stand – have been exclusively created for the event at K11 Musea. 

Why pink? We ask Charley Vezza, Gufram’s global creative orchestrator: ‘Pink because Gufram had never released a product painted in this colour before. Pink for the “Broken” series, because Snarkitecture use mostly black and white but if they choose a colour, they choose it well. Pink… why not?’

INFORMATION

gufram.it 
snarkitecture.com
Art Karnival, 14 May-27 June 2021, K11 Musea, Hong Kong, k11.com

Covid-19 had far reaching effects on all aspects of life, including a pandemic of plastic pollution. Alongside a spike in medical waste, it seems we’ve been turning to single use plastics for our cutlery and food containers as advice on eating hygienically has shifted. As the world slowly and tentatively begins to look forwards, Pentatonic (longtime proponent of circular economies) has sought an environmentally friendly alternative for on-the-go dining that still protects our health.

The design and technology company has partnered Pharrell William’s I am Other entrepreneurial collective on ‘The Pebble by Otherware’, a colourful dining kit that clips onto your bag. Containing a fork, knife, spoon, straw and chopsticks, the elements fold away into a neat and easily portable pebble shape, providing ‘peace of mind in regards to personal hygiene’, says Pentatonic. After debuting a colorful kit for the project’s launch earlier in 2020, the collective now presents its first creative collaboration, a new grey version created with New York-based architecture practice Snarkitecture. The designers chose a shade they dubbed 'triple-grey', which results in an identical finish across multiple materials.

‘We can all benefit by using things more than once, especially when it comes to single use plastics like cutlery and straws,’ says Snarkitecture co-founder, Alex Mustonen. ‘We love the idea of making more by using less, and by creating our version of the Pebble with 100% recycled materials we are excited to do just that - while being able to eat our cake with it too.’

Otherware touts the kit as ‘completely sustainable’: produced entirely from recycled materials – including CD’s, in a nod to Pharrell’s roots in music – its every component can be recycled again. Staying true to the circularity it’s known for, Pentatonic will buy the pod back at trade value at end-of-life, so its materials can be made into something else. 

‘Sustainable design is more important than ever,’ adds Daniel Arsham, co-founder of Snarkitecture. ‘We're proud to play a role in Otherware's mission to reduce waste and provide an alternative to single-use plastic cutlery.’

INFORMATION

otherware.co

‘My mantra is that design is about people, not about chairs,’ says Milan-based design curator and journalist Maria Cristina Didero. A fitting credo, considering Didero’s new book, People of Maria Cristina Didero, shifts objects to the edge of the spotlight and instead focuses its gaze on the characters behind them — and the interviewer herself.

Conceived by the Prague-based creative collective OKOLO — made up of curator Adam Štěch and graphic designers Matěj Činčera and Jan Kloss — the book compiles interviews and exhibition texts written by Didero over an eventful 15 years as an independent curator and design journalist. Each section is dedicated to a different designer, artist or curator and features the likes of Oki Sato, Maurizio Cattelan, Philippe Malouin and Studio 65. Though the book was launched last month in Milan at graphic design festival Mostro, the project originated as a pop-up exhibition during Prague Design Week last year.

In researching the project, Didero and Štěch dug deep into her archive and extracted the snippets of conversation that best defined her oeuvre. OKOLO’s design wizards then interpreted each text into a playful line drawing, creating a unique visual response to the designer’s work and Didero’s words. ‘This was really something that enriched me so much,’ she says of the opportunity to reflect on a life of writing about design and the relationships that have sprung from or been cemented by those chats, ‘my approach has always been about the intersection and the reciprocity of design, people and communication.’

But how does she feel about finally being the subject of her own show? ‘I had never been on the other side of the fence before,’ Didero admits of the experience, which turned the tables on the prolific curator, who, alongside holding the position of co-editor of Italy’s Icon Design magazine, has been at the helm of projects like SuperDesign, a book, exhibition and film on the Italian radical design movement, Vegan Design by Erez Nevi Pana presented in Milan in 2018 and Snarkitecture’s blockbuster Fun House retrospective at the National Building Museum that same year. ‘So I thought, now I can be demanding, just like my designers!’ she laughs at the idea of taking on the persona of a design diva, ‘but in the end, I wasn’t — I was very well behaved.’

Israel’s Design Museum Holon has just opened its doors to ‘The Conversation Show’, an exhibition that explores five creative relationships at the root of five global design studios. In this intimate investigation, the role of the curator, Maria Cristina Didero, has been particularly analytical, and the works on display are the outcome of creative processes that transcend the fundamentals of conventional product design.

‘The show is based on emotions and interaction,’ says Didero. ‘It is an exhibition focusing on the idea of reciprocity and exchange, investigating true and deep bonds of designers who think and work in perfect unison, as well as the creative results of their distinctive approach.’

Five distinguished design firms were chosen for the project: Amsterdam-based cooperative BCXSY (Boaz Cohen and Sayaka Yamamoto); Vienna-based studio mischer’traxler (Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler); Jaffa-based studio Reddish (Naama Steinbock and Idan Friedman); New York-based multidisciplinary practice Snarkitecture (Daniel Arsham, Alex Mustonen and Benjamin Porto) and Venice-based studio Zaven (Enrica Cavarzan and Marco Zavagno).

The behaviour of communication within collaboration creates an intimate portait in the show. ‘This is a very important exhibition, and is particularly close to my heart because, more than any other show I have curated, it is really centred around people, their creative processes – on collaboration, listening and sharing in order to produce design. It is also very significant that this project, which is based on people and talks about people and relationships, should take place in a country as unique as Israel,’ Didero explains.

The creative processes of these five selected studios are all based on the idea of beauty and innovation, and reveal a sense of accessibility to their design language that might have not been available before. ‘I would like to thank all the designers who have worked with me on this show for being so open, generous and curious – for revealing themselves to us,’ says Didero. ‘At the end of the day that was the biggest challenge. They did not give up when asked: “how do you start a project? How do you develop it? Who are you, how do you think? How could you explain your creative process to the public?”’

Using mirrors designed for Gufram, Snarkitecture creates an immersive installation that alters the monochromatic architectural surrounds, transforming the space into its vision of a parallel universe. Titled, The Hall of Broken Mirrors, it was designed for the museum’s Lower Gallery, while the other four projects are situated in the Upper Gallery of the building designed by Ron Arad in 2010.

Elsewhere, Mischer’traxler realises a kinetic light installation entitled Coalesque that visualises the couple’s conversations, while Reddish concentrates on the idea of equilibrium and synergy with Balancing Act – a collection of mobile objects that interact both with each other and the visitors. Zaven mixes light and colour in Dune, a collection of lamps made fused glass sheets that are the result of the designers’ experimentation with traditional Venetian craft techniques.

Finally, duo BCXSY’s project examines the concept of balance as the starting point for every creative process and their site-specific piece, titled Reciprocal Syntax, can only be activated by two participants working together.

Go behind the scenes with BCXSY and their collaborative process

INFORMATION

‘The Conversation Show’ is on view until 26 October. For more information, visit the Design Museum of Holon website

ADDRESS

Pinkhas Eilon St 8, Holon
5845400
Israel

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In the 19 years since it was founded, the Dallas-born fashion boutique Forty Five Ten has continued to establish itself as one of the world’s most exciting retail destinations with its pioneering fusion of art and fashion.

This month, the boutique, which also boasts well-heeled outposts in Aspen, Miami and Napa, opens a stylish new set of doors within New York’s Hudson Yards. Situated on the fifth floor of the Shops at Hudson Yards, conveniently nestled between Momofuku’s Kawi and Bouchon Bakery, the sprawling, 16,000 sq ft space has been designed in collaboration with Snarkitecture.

Kristen and Joe Cole – Forty Five Ten president and CCO, and senior vice president of retail and hospitality at Headington Companies which owns the retail behemoth – first developed a relationship with Snarkitecture’s Daniel Arsham through other projects back in Dallas. Kristen Cole notes, ‘The location at Hudson Yards felt the right amount of disruptive and visionary. We love the unique and emergent nature of the neighbourhood. The critical mass of talent and culture being cultivated [here] was also very compelling. We were looking to create a real show-stopper in terms of the façade.’

To that end, the husband and wife team worked with Snarkitecture to develop the boutique’s eye-catching glass brick storefront, which wittily riffs on the traditional exposed brick convention. Snarkitecture also designed the grid-shaped retail displays that loosely evoke the 1960s ethos of Superstudio. 

Forty Five Ten’s New York boutique is comprised of four individual stores that have been divided into women’s designer, men’s store, collected vintage and 4510/Six, a platform for emerging fashion and home design. Throughout its offering, plenty of treasures abound, ranging from memorable artworks and sculptures from artists such as Lars Fisk, Jose Dávila and Al Freeman to special collaborations like a limited edition fashion capsule with the Brooklyn-based artist Katie Stout.

Throw into that Forty Five Ten’s signature traits, such as bright pastel colours, bold flourishes like mirrored panels and eclectic terrazzo flooring in the case of the New York store, and a curated selection of specially selected art and its mix of directional, high fashion, the spacious boutique has all the trappings of fashion mecca that you’ll find hard to leave.

Cole says, ‘I’m really proud of the artists we feature in each space – a Jose Dávila sculpture in Women’s Designer; Al Freeman soft sculptures in Men’s; a Lars Fisk sphere, six feet in diameter, in Vintage; Katie Stout sculptures in 4510/SIX; and furniture and retail display fixtures throughout by Greg Bogin. All of these elements really pull together the intersection of art, fashion and design that is at the core of Forty Five Ten. This store is truly experiential and fun. We want our clients to shop of course, but also to come and explore.’ 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Forty Five Ten website

ADDRESS

20 Hudson Yards, Level 5
New York, NY 10001

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Subversion is to be expected from Snarkitecture. The New York design studio has consistently based its multi-disciplinary works – which range from furniture and product designs to art installations, experiential environments and architectural interventions – around notions of the unexpected and the uncanny. Surfaces and objects are often ruptured and excavated to create a visual language based on natural topography, while a palette of white and grey coolly emphasises form, materiality and manmade artifice. A Snarkitecture piece is an easy spot.

‘We often look to existing materials, objects and architecture, finding ways to reimagine it or create new and unexpected uses from it,’ says designer Alex Mustonen, who co-founded Snarkitecture in 2008 with artist Daniel Arsham (they met while students at the Cooper Union in New York). Architect Benjamin Porto joined as a third partner in 2014.

It’s a distinctive approach that has made the Snarkitecture team a regular fixture at Salone del Mobile in recent years, producing collaborations with brands such as COS, Valextra, Gufram and Calico Wallpaper. This year it will present an immersive pop-up installation for quartz surface company Caesarstone, whose annual commission has brought serious cultural cachet and creative calibre to a rather static product line most readily associated with kitchen countertops. Previous collaborations – with the likes of Nendo, Raw-Edges, Philippe Malouin, Tom Dixon and Jaime Hayon – have resulted in a series of wildly inventive material explorations centring on the brand’s signature engineered-stone slabs.

Asked to interpret the kitchen space for this year’s edition – which coincides with the biennial EuroCucina show at Salone del Mobile – Snarkitecture explores the notion of a kitchen island as a social hub and a context within which to explore the changing states of water, the most elemental ‘ingredient’ used in cooking. In an early preview, titled Altered States and shared in January at the International Design Show (IDS) in Toronto, the designers presented a series of sculptural vignettes that formally reference glaciers, geysers and waterfalls: a range of ‘structures that connect altered states of water to the natural world’, says Mustonen. Each topographic study suggests a scale of geologic time in miniature, evoking natural rock formations and contours that have been eroded and sculpted by the passage of water in various states – ice, liquid, steam – and which are equally put to use in cooking techniques.

‘I knew Caesarstone, as I think most people do, as a kitchen countertop material, and we were interested in thinking of using it in ways that it wasn’t meant to be used,’ says Mustonen. ‘In this case, there was an opportunity for us to take this material that people understand in a very specific, narrow context, and open it up a little bit to create a somewhat abstract, experiential environment.’ Arsham adds, half-jokingly, ‘We also just wanted to build something that would involve a giant ball of ice.’

In Milan, these topographical and elemental explorations – made with layers of Caesarstone’s engineered-quartz slabs, precision-cut into sinuous contours and stacked in a terraced mass in a display of the material’s solidity – will combine to form a single ‘island’ with various stations showcasing ice, water and steam. Offering a physical metaphor of the kitchen island as an island landscape, it will form the centrepiece of an amphitheatre-style setting, which will be surrounded by more than 250 pedestals, made using three different Caesarstone colours from its new industrial collection Metropolitan: ‘Cloudburst Concrete’, ‘Airy Concrete’ and ‘Rugged Concrete’. The monochromatic pedestals gradually rise to emulate the appearance of a natural landscape.

The installation itself will take place at the long-shuttered Palazzo dell’Ufficio Elettorale di Porta Romana, a former university building that will open to the public for the first time in 20 years, for the duration of Salone. ‘It’s sort of a secret space in the city, a building that you might walk by all the time without noticing what’s inside it,’ says Porto. Altered States will give visitors a rare opportunity to take in the aged grandeur of the storied, timeworn space before it’s closed down and redesigned by Piero Lissoni for the forthcoming Milan Edition Hotel.

‘Whether it’s in the context of IDS in Toronto, or Salone, we’re interested in creating an experience for people who are seeing dozens of installations or hundreds of objects a day,’ says Mustonen. ‘We wanted to create something that will ideally stand a little bit apart from that setting – something a bit meditative and reflective on the one hand, but also sort of strange and theatrical on the other.’

As originally featured in the May 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*230)

Experience Altered States at Salone del Mobile 2018. Video: courtesy of Snarkitecture

INFROMATION

Altered States is on view at Palazzo dell’Ufficio Elettorale di Porta Romana from 17 – 21 April at Salone del Mobile. For more information, visit the Snarkitecture website

ADDRESS

Palazzo dell’Ufficio Elettorale di Porta Romana
Corso di Porta Romana 10
20122, Milan

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Established by architect Alex Mustonen and artist Daniel Arsham in 2008, New York design studio Snarkitecture occupies an enthralling grey area between the worlds of art and architecture. In the relatively short space of ten years, its founders’ unique talent for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary has seen the practice rack up an impressive list of clients across the globe, including collaborations with COS, Kith, Valextra, Calvin Klein and Adidas to name just a few.

As it continues to expand, Mustonen and Arsham, together with partner Benjamin Porto, agreed that now seemed like the perfect time to debut its a monograph.

‘It felt like a good time to start framing our work,’ reflects Mustonen. ‘When you’re in amongst it, it becomes your day to day and it can become difficult to take a step back and reassess, or take a critical view. This exercise really helped us do that.’

Published by Phaidon, the tome showcases 70 projects from Snarkitecture’s mostly monochrome portfolio and explores how its experimental and multidisciplinary approach has turned them into one of the world’s most sought-after design studios.

‘It started as an experiment,’ explains Mustonen. ‘There wasn’t any set agenda or business plan apart from the basic conceptual framework, which was that right from the beginning our goal was to create a collaboration between the disciplines of art and architecture. To come up with these outlandish experiential concepts and then find ways of bringing them into the world.’

From product and furniture design to interiors and large-scale installations, the book’s 400 visuals document projects such as the firm’s design for the Design Miami collectors fair tent, which it clad in white sausage-shaped inflatables; a cave-like space made from excavating blocks of Styrofoam for the Storefront for Art & Architecture; and the very Instagram-friendly ‘beach’ installation at the National Building Museum in Washington DC, where the studio filled the grand hall with almost a million translucent balls to create a ‘sea’ in which visitors could frolic.

Milan-based curator Maria Cristina Didero provides the book’s introduction, a conversation among Mustonen, Arsham and Benjamin Porto which provides insight into the thought processes behind their creative methods. For detail fans, the book’s ‘Technical Index’ features architectural drawings of every project. Some may also recognise the book’s topographical torn paper cover design, which the studio debuted as a wallpaper with Brooklyn brand Calico last year. Photography is by Noah Kalina, while Neil Donnelly created the book’s design.

‘We chose a fairly unorthodox structure for the book,’ explains Mustonen. ‘Instead of grouping projects by theme we used an open-ended spectrum such as “not art” and “not architecture” as all of our work falls in between those spaces. It was helpful for us to think about the projects on this linear spectrum.’

Looking to the future, Mustonen revealed the studio has some permanent as well as large-scale works in its sights, the first of which will be unveiled at Salone del Mobile (17-22 April). Working in collaboration with quartz surface manufacturer Caesarstone, Snarkitecture will present a large-scale installation titled ‘Altered States’, that promises to explores the changing states of water in the context of the modern kitchen.

INFORMATION

Snarkitecture, £49.95, published by Phaidon. For more information, visit the Snarkitecture website

Snarkitecture’s ‘Fun House’ has opened in the Great Hall of the National Building Museum in Washington DC as part of the institution’s annual Summer Block Party series and it’s likely to be the Instagram hit of the season.

Following in the footsteps of Bjarke Ingels Group, Studio Gang and James Corner Field Operations, who have all created installations at the museum, Snarkitecture has created a white temporary structure that houses some of its most memorable work. The ‘Fun House’, curated by Maria Cristina Didero, will be Snarkitecture’s first comprehensive museum showing and coincides with the practice’s tenth anniversary.

‘A little over a year ago, we started working on our first book about Snarkitecture, which is coming out in April with Phaidon,’ recalls Alex Mustonen, who founded the practice with Daniel Arsham. ‘The process of sifting through hundreds of projects – from when we first started the studio in 2008 through last year – became an opportunity to reflect on the wide range of work we’ve created within the larger ideas of the practice.’

He adds, ‘In editing and organising everything to fit within the context of a book that would introduce new audiences to Snarkitecture, we started to think of the idea of an exhibition with a similar aim. Many of our projects have existed in a specific places for a short duration of time, so what would it look like to bring these moments together within a single venue, accessible to a diverse audience? We wanted to invite visitors to experience past objects, installations and architectural scale projects by Snarkitecture in a tactile and immersive way.’

Staged within a freestanding, house-like structure that riffs on the idea of a typical home, ‘Fun House’ comprises a series of interactive rooms that showcase recognisable Snarkitecture environments and objects from over the years, as well as new concepts developed especially for the occasion.

The house features a front and back yard filled with ‘outdoor activities’ for visitors to enjoy, plus a kidney-shaped pool full of antimicrobial balls echoing Snarkitecture’s popular The Beach installation (above), which made its debut at the National Building Museum in 2015 before continuing on in numerous iterations and travelling around the world.

‘Making architecture and design approachable and fun is at the heart of the success of our sumer series,’ says Chase Rynd, executive director of the National Building Museum. ‘Snarkitecture really understands our mission of inspiring curiosity about the world we design and build, and we’re excited to be working with them for the second time.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Snarkitecture website and National Building Museum website

ADDRESS

National Building Museum
401 F Street NW
Washington DC 20001

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Circular lifestyle brand Pentatonic launched last year with duo Jamie Hall (ex-NikeLab) and Johann Boedecker (formerly of Miniwiz) championing furniture, tableware and accessories made from post-consumer waste. The brand is now launching its inaugural designer collaboration, inviting New York firm Snarkitecture to create a new furniture range, Fractured – a collection of benches and tables that merge of art, design and sustainability.

‘The material approach and technological approach of Pentatonic really opens possibilities, especially for a practice like ours,’ says Alex Munstonen, co-founder of Snarkitecture, on the series that is directly made up of material waste. For example, the bench is made up of 240 plastic bottles, 45 aluminium drinks cans, 120 items of food packaging, and four car bumpers. These are then built using nitrogen-assisted injection moulding, extruding the aluminium into long bars, this then takes shape via CNC machining and is then anodised.

The Brooklyn-based duo are an ideal match for project, bringing their conceptual and slightly playful aesthetic the collection. The architecture of the pieces, the concept of lots of waste turning into a one piece, and then snapping this right down the middle ‘almost like a child’s puzzle’ say Daniel Arsham, co-founder of Snarkitecture, adds humour to the highly engineered collection.

‘This collaboration was a real demonstration of the power and potential of working with post consumer waste,’ says Hall. ‘There is too much trash on our beaches, in our oceans, there is so much that could be used again and again with the right technology.’ A step in the right direction for furniture design, we would say.

Go behind the scenes of the Fractured furniture collaboration

INFORMATION

Fractured is available exclusively at Pentatonic’s website

It’s that time of year again when quartz specialist Caesarstone pushes the boundaries of their dynamic wares by collaborating with a design big-hitter. Recall last year’s folkloric playground by Jaime Hayon, or 2016’s elemental kitchens by Tom Dixon, each project is first unveiled at Interior Design Show in Toronto, and then evolves throughout the year.

This year’s offering is the brainchild of multi-disciplinary design renegade Snarkitecture. It centres on any self-respecting domestic dreamer’s contemporary kitchen must-have – the island – a space which has become ‘the social hub of the house,’ says Alex Mustonen, Snarkitecture’s partner and co-founder. It’s an idea that aligns with his goal of ‘creating environments and experiences that are designed to be inclusive.’

Using Caesarstone’s surfaces as a jumping off point, Snarkitecture have created four, highly conceptual takes on kitchen islands. Each have their own identities, yet communicate with the same design language, categorised by sinuous, stratified layers that emulate natural topography.

Titled ‘Ice Island’, ‘Water Island’, ‘Steam Island’ and ‘Play Island’, the four-fold installation reflects the kitchen island’s multi-function; a place of preparation, performance, and occasional kitchen-sink drama. Take ‘Steam Island’, for instance, which comprises 28, finely rendered layers of Caesarstone White Attica quartz. Through the layers, an atmospheric emission of water vapour emits from the surface – evoking both earth-shattering volcanic eruptions, and (a little closer to home) the gentle over-boiling of a pan.

More objet d'art than à la carte, the islands are intended to convey the brilliance of Caesarstone surfaces. ‘As architects, we tend to be very material-oriented,’ says Ben Porto, partner at Snarkitecture. ‘This collaboration gives us the opportunity to engage and interact with the Caesarstone material, something we would like to pass on to visitors of the installation, demonstrating its versatility and quality.’

The IDS instalment is just the appetiser for this ongoing island project – look out for the large scale installation during Salone del Mobile in April.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Caesarstone website and the Snarkitecture website

’Loop’ is the product of collaboration between Snarkitecture and COS

In 2014, Snarkitecture presented ‘Marble Run’ – an interpretation of the popular children’s toy where marbles wind around a path – at the Delano during Art Basel in Miami Beach. Visitors plucked black marbles from a circular, mirrored plinth, dropping them anywhere along the 10 ft high installation to watch them roll down various paths.

Now Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen, the duo behind the New York-based firm Snarkitecture are building another marble maze, this time with COS at Gana Art Center in Seoul, South Korea through 19 November. Titled ‘Loop’, the installation consists of four light blue powder-coated aluminum metal tracks that stretch 500 m, and curve around a stark white exhibition space, providing an intertwined path for the marbles.

Some 100,000 white-glass balls go in and out of the run, thanks to precision engineering that makes the installation come alive. ‘There’s a circular black hole in the wall and every ten second it spits out a marble,’ explained Arsham, who said that the marbles land on the floor in an adjoining space, creating a sea that visitors walk through, on an elevated path. Then, they go into a hole in the floor to be circulated back into the maze.

The light blue path subtley contrasts the white background while the white marbles roll down and around the installation. ‘Our intention was to create a contemplative environment with "Loop" – a space that was not immediately understood upon entering,’ said Arsham. ‘While we wanted the design to be playful, we were mindful of creating a work that provided an escape.’

COS will also present a miniature version of the installation at its Cheongdam store in Seoul for the duration of the exhibition. Mustonen hopes to collaborate with the minimalist fashion label again. ‘In conceiving this project – our third with COS – we wanted to offer visitors an experience that combines the values and sensibility of the brand with our perspective and approach,’ he said. ‘It is a legacy we are developing together and we hope the project offers visitors an interactive and memorable experience.’

INFORMATION

‘Loop’ is on view until 19 November. For more information, visit the Snarkitecture website, the COS website and the Gana Art Center website

ADDRESS

97 Pyeongchang-dong
Jongno-gu
Seoul
South Korea

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There is always an element of surprise around Gufram’s Salone del Mobile launches. Its wacky and outlandish products may not always functional, but the radical brand’s experimental streak keep us on our toes. This year is no different as Gufram’s inaugural collaboration with New York studio Snarkitecture will set tongues wagging.

Following an introduction through mutual friends a few years ago, Gufram owner and art director Charley Vezza and Snarkitecture’s Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen discovered that they shared a similar aesthetic and approach to their brands. ‘For me, Snarkitecture’s style is representative of a line of research that bears witness to the radical nature of the third millennium’, says Vezza.

The first mirror launched by Gufram, ‘Broken Mirror’ travels beyond realism, toying with form and function in a colossal Flintstones-style stone silhouette. A limited edition of 77 pieces, the design is a fine example of the avant-garde manufacturing techniques of the Italian brand too: the Guflac paint that covers the polyurethane frame of the mirror lends it a tough concrete look.

Mustonen explains, ‘We were really interested in the interplay between the technical precision of the glass mirror and the unexpected softness of Gufram’s signature foam material.’ This trait draws parallels to Snarkitecture’s style too. ‘Much of [our] work is interested in this balance between precision and looseness or hardness and softness,’ Mustonen adds.

The mirror will be on view at Wallpaper’s space at Mediateca Santa Teresa in an otherworldly ‘Planet Gufram’ experience. No doubt we are in for some more surprises.

INFORMATION

‘Wallpaper* Holy Handmade!’ is on view from 4 – 9 April. For more information, visit the Gufram website and Snarkitecture website

Italian luxury brand Valextra unveiled the latest chapter in its ongoing series of aesthetic reinventions, with a new pop-up store design by American duo Alex Mustonen and Daniel Arsham of Snarkitecture. The pair worked on Valextra’s via Manzoni boutique, applying their signature minimal aesthetic to the space – and for the occasion, Valextra’s new collection was shown in an all-white palette (‘a colourless colour revolution’, as the brand calls it), merging with the Snarkitecture narrative.

‘Clean lines have been a unifying trait of all our collaborators,’ says Valextra CEO Sara Ferrero, who has been deeply involved in the brand's design collaborations, from Philippe Malouin’s interiors for the London store to previous pop-ups by the likes of Peter Saville and Martino Gamper. ‘We like [Snarkitecture's] combination of art and architecture, their chromatic purity and the fact that their work is minimal but always fun, ironic.’

The duo looked to Valextra's Milan base for inspiration, and at first sight were attracted by the stone of its buildings. Looking further into the urban environment, they noticed a mesh fabric wrapping the scaffoldings that covered building sites throughout the city, and they combined the two materials in an immersive installation.

‘We were interested in the juxtaposition of hard, architectural surfaces with soft textures, as well as the play between precision and looseness,’ says Alex Mustonen. The installation is a combination of these elements, with a mesh grid covering the walls and erupting in a cloud-like texture on the ceiling, to create what Mustonen calls ‘a cavernous volume, that doesn’t feel like an everyday architectural experience’. The raw stone is used on the floor and in display elements such as the central desk, adorned with a foam trim.

‘Valextra's bags are very structural and architectural so we were thinking of playing with the idea of contrasting that with the space,’ explains Mustonen. As with Valextra's past creative collaborators, he is passionate about the quality and timeless design of the pieces, and their versatility. The Costa bag's defining black edges is enhanced by the all-white palette, placing the collection centre stage in this installation.

‘We are not trying to be fashionable,’ adds Ferrero, ‘we want to tell the brand’s story. These collaborations form a constant dialogue reinventing the space around an iconic, timeless product.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Snarkitecture website and the Valextra website

Multi-disciplinary art-star Daniel Arsham is known for looking forwards. The Snarkitecture co-founder has a questioning, futuristic tone, that recurrs in whatever medium he’s picked that day – be it film, sculpture, paint or performance art. His new exhibition at Tokyo’s Nunzuka Gallery continues this probing theme through nine time-travelling works.

’My First Exhibition in Japan, Year 2044’ takes ageing media devices like boom-boxes and analogue cameras, and decays them in geological materials such as volcanic ash, selenite and crushed glass. Displayed with museum-like sterility, complete with holes, broken ariels and melted lenses, the objects are made alien, as if they’ve been excavated from a future archaeological dig.

We’ve seen Arsham destroy cameras before, back in 2012, where he plaster-cast them, then smashed them for ’Reach Ruin’ in Philadelphia. They appear again amongst the chalky rubble of his ’fictional archeology’ show in October 2015. These new sculptures have a darker, more sinister tone. The same intricate detail and satirical wit remains in their decay, but the smooth, ice-white plaster has been replaced by black tar and grainy ash.

Upping the stakes, Arsham has also fabricated a human body, preserved in a lava-like substance, with singed holes in the life-like skin. Protruding from the wall, trapped in stasis, the sculpture is reminiscent of the body casts at Pompeii. Eerily, only the face, arms and legs remain, with the feet still tucked in boots. 

A little light is added to this prophetic showcase through four vibrant paintings of the moon, which use thick blue oils to create the bubbling crater-effect. Arsham’s film ’Future Relic’ also has a lunar theme, the last three chapters of which are on display. Posing as a potential future documentary, the film imagines a post-apocalyptic world in which large, geometric sections of the moon are excavated in an attempt to reverse the rising tides.

By citing the year ’2044’ in the title, Arsham creates a sense of urgency, hinting that this desolate land of ash clouds and heaving tides might not be so far away.

INFORMATION
’My First Exhibition in Japan, Year 2044’ runs through 16 April 2016. For more information, visit the Nanzuka Gallery website

ADDRESS

Shibuya Ibis #B1F
2-17-3 Shibuya Shibuya-ku 
Tokyo 150-0002, Japan

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Photography courtesy the artist and Nanzuka Gallery

In a showcase of aesthetic reflection, a new pop-up in downtown Los Angeles features the clean lines of Swedish fashion retailer COS in a sparse, but thoughtful environment by the Brooklyn-based design firm Snarkitecture. 'The stars aligned,' says Fredrik Carlstrom, founder of the Scandinavian design showroom Austere, which is hosting the installation until the end of the week. 'I think our brands and aesthetics line up nicely.'

With 138 stores in 27 countries, COS is known for bringing refined simplicity to a broader audience; the pop-up at Austere is the brand’s first outpost in east Los Angeles, after opening its first U.S. store in Beverly Hills last year. 'When briefing creatives we tend to have a pretty carte blanche approach; we work with people who generally have a similar aesthetic to us and who have inspired us for the collection,' says Karin Gustafsson, co-head of design at COS, who first worked with the design duo Snarkitecture on an installation for the Salone del Mobile in Milan. 'As a brand we have undertaken various retail installations over the years and love to see the way designers reinterpret our core DNA,' she continues.

On powder-coated cutouts that serve as both graphic signage and room dividers, Snarkitecture drew out essential pieces of the new silhouette, beloved by a certain set of creatives in urban enclaves worldwide: a wider pant, a rounded neck, an architectural coat, and a split-sleeve shirt dress. Hanging on long racks, the clothing display echoes across two parallel rooms and on two floors, and also in a ceiling-height mirror. 

Alex Mustonen, co-founder of Snarkitecture, says he found inspiration for the retail project by studying tone and shape details in the current COS collection, including a recurring dusty pink and angular cuts. 'When you look at the visuals, there is an obvious kinship in the minimalist and often monochromatic palette that we’re operating within,' Mustonen says. 'Both of us are interested in reduction and simplicity: how can you do the most with the least, and taking away everything that’s not necessary.'

INFORMATION

Website

The installation is on view until 15 November

ADDRESS

Austere
912 South Hill Street
Los Angeles

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Artist and designer Daniel Arsham – co-founder of the trailblazing Brooklyn firm Snarkitecture and responsible for such innovative immersive art-cum-architectural projects as 'The Beach' – has just completed an exhibition that further showcases his considerable creative talents. Art enthusiasts are already embracing 'The Future Was Written', staged at the Miami Design District’s YoungArts Gallery and curated by no less than the recently appointed Miami Pérez Art Museum Miami director, Franklin Sirmans.

Arsham’s efforts fall into the categories of sculpture, architecture and performance, making for an immersive and continually evolving experience; it's ‘fictional archeology’, he says, rationalising the thrust of the show.

Within the gallery, Arsham has placed some 2,000 chalk casts of works as disparate as film reels, Leica cameras and computers which he defines as ‘relics of the past’. Among them are casts of Grecian-style hands and regal heads, along with an electric guitar or two, all which are placed on a bevy of pedestals, with some strewn across the floor with black painted chalkboards cloaking the walls. 

As to the transformative and participatory nature of the exhibition, gallery goers are invited to take up those chalky objects to create their own drawings throughout the two story space. Within hours of the preview party, upwards of hundreds of designs marked the gallery walls –a newly found public creativity galvanised under Arsham's fanciful influence.

INFORMATION

‘The Future Was Written’ is on view until 15 December

ADDRESS

YoungArts Gallery
2100 Biscayne Boulevard
Miami, FLA 33137

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When Kith founder Ronnie Fieg opened his flagship store in Brooklyn, he strategically opted for a spot on Flatbush Avenue close to the Barclays Center. 'We chose the location because we felt like the neighborhood needed it,' says Fieg. That was four years ago. Now Fieg is expanding Kith Brooklyn from 800 sq ft to 4,500 sq ft.

He tapped Snarkitecture, the Brooklyn-based design firm founded by Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen, to design the interiors for the stark white space, which includes Brooklyn’s first cereal cafe, and a VIP area with a bar and screening room. 'In terms of overall feel, we wanted this location to be different than the [first] Bleecker Street space, which has a dark floor and ceiling,' says Arsham. 'Kith Brooklyn is the visual opposite – the infinity mirrors expand the space and the white Carrara herringbone tiled flooring is something we had wanted to incorporate into one of our projects, and this was the right use.'

The cereal bar, Kith Treats, has 24 menu options (including Apple Jacks, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Frosted Flakes), 25 additional toppings (from Oreos to Kit-Kat) and five types of milk (hemp milk is one of the options), served in mini white shoe boxes and milk bottles.

'Cereal has always been an obsession of mine,' says Fieg. 'Growing up, my parents wouldn’t let me eat sugar cereals. So I used to have to eat my friends’ cereal when I would visit their houses after school.' Customers can also collect proof of purchase tickets to redeem for prizes like limited edition Kith and Nike tennis balls.

The Kith Brooklyn boutique will offer the label’s in-house line of upscale streetwear, along with high-end labels like Public School, Pierre Balmain, John Elliott + Co, Y-3, and Off-White. A vast array of sneakers – 'the best selection of footwear you’ll see anywhere in the world', says Fieg – will also be available.

ADDRESS

Kith Brooklyn
233 Flatbush Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11217

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Summer in Washington DC can be a sweltering affair. Elected officials decamp the city during its muggiest months, but for those who stay behind or choose to visit, relief tends to come in one of two ways: head to one of the region's beaches or just stay indoors. For its new architecture installation at the National Building Museum, New York design firm Snarkitecture set out to combine the best of both worlds with its design for an indoor beach – of sorts, anyway.

With no sand or water in sight, 'The Beach' is more of an interpretation; as Snarkitecture senior associate Benjamin Porto puts it, 'we abstracted the architectural elements of a beach'. Sand and water? Translucent plastic balls. Shore? Astroturf. And the horizon line? A panel of mirrors. 

Taking over the museum's expansive atrium space, the installation covers 930 sq m with over a million balls, allowing visitors to wade through a sea of spheres. 'The balls act like water,' explains Porto, highlighting the project's emphasis on interactivity. 'You can't just walk through it. It forces you to interact with it.' If its 4 July opening day was any indication, visitors will use the space like an actual bay, floating on the surface of the 'water', diving underneath, and lounging on the shoreline.

Those who might see more of a potential petri dish than a beach can rest easy. Manufactured by the North Carolina-based plastics company Intertech Corp, the balls are made with a new anti-microbial material.

'The Beach' is a de facto follow up to last summer's 'BIG maze' installation at the National Building Museum – a plywood labyrinth designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). It will be open until Labor Day, which this year falls on 7 September.

ADDRESS

National Building Museum 
401 F St NW
Washington DC 20001
United States

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Re-branding an existing hotel is no easy feat, but the challenge didn't seem too much for Andre Balazs' golden touch. Since acquiring the Cooper Square Hotel over two years ago, the hotelier has been steadily giving the 21-storey building the Standard treatment - all the while receiving guests, no less. The now-complete Standard East Village boasts a creative rejig of its existing infrastructure and is the more contemplative, laid back cousin to its High Line counterpart. Designed in part by Shawn Hausman, guests now enter the eclectic lobby through the cosy doors of an adjoining townhouse. A spherical, grey-scale installation, Pixel Cloud, by Snarkitecture's Daniel Arsham, emerges through an adjacent corridor. The space leads off into Café Standard, an intimate street café decorated with colourful tiles and hanging plants that dishes out casual American fare, cocktails and beer, and boasts doors that open onto the street during warmer, al fresco-friendly months. The hotel's real jewel though, is Narcissa, a Cali-inspired restaurant, and the latest enterprise from chef John Fraser, which uses produce grown on Balazs' farm, Locusts on Hudson, and champions rotisserie cooking in a whole new way. The Nordic-Shaker style dining room overlooks the hotel's expansive garden, which houses a ceramic fountain installation by artists Chris Johanson and Jo Jackson and will also offer a petanque court and lounge chairs as soon as the weather permits.

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

The Standard East Village 

25 Cooper Square 

New York

USA

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Glimpses of a ghostly, monochrome world are what mark out Daniel Arsham. The New York-based artist, and co-founder of experimental design and architecture practice Snarkitecture, has long been moulding his own blend of art, performance and architecture in a hypnotic greyscale palette, which has never veered off-course – that is, until now.

This month, Arsham’s first solo exhibition takes place at the New York branch of Galerie Perrotin, which has represented him for the past 11 years. The exhibition brings together ten sculptural works, as well as an immersive, large-scale installation that takes over the gallery’s entire basement floor – and for the first time is in colour.

‘For the last few years, I have been working with these fictional archaeological objects from our present that have been recreated in materials that we associate with time,’ Arsham says. ‘All of the materials have been in a tonality of black and white. Partly that was due to the colouration of the actual materials, but also I’m colour blind, so most of the work I’ve made has been in that scope.’

He continues, ‘I recently got lenses that partially correct my vision. Now that I’m able to see properly, this exhibition further explores the themes that I’ve been working with, but does it with a palette of colour.’

Arsham’s new work expands upon his role as a historian of contemporary culture, recovering abstracted icons of 20th century living. The exhibition replaces the crumbling boomboxes, video game controllers, motorcycle helmets and cameras that Arsham has conjured up in past work, with symbols of sports culture, such as baseball caps, varsity jackets, protective masks and vests, basketballs and footballs made with rich blue calcite crystal and vibrant purple amethyst.

‘Even though I can see a fuller range of colour now, I’m not just making a rainbow. My vision is actually not that reduced. If you see 100 per cent of colour, I see about 20 per cent of the range, so it’s not entirely black and white,’ Arsham explains. ‘The colour in the exhibition comes from the materials themselves. I’m still using some of the reductive palette that I’ve used in my work in the past, which is a simplification of things.’ Arsham’s fascination with turning everyday objects into mysterious and curious artefacts is a mission that continues to define his practice. ‘I’ve looked for things that are icons of themselves. Things that are immediately recognisable, not just to me and to Western culture, but worldwide,’ he says. The crystalline effect of the materials – and the fact that Arsham doesn’t repair the failings of the casting process – produces a frozen yet imperfect portrait of contemporary life that leaves the viewer with a dissociative take on today’s pop culture.

‘I have always been interested in architecture and time. I’ve done a lot of work in which I’ve explored archeology and objects, but I’ve never explored the fictional archeologist, if you will. This exhibition sort of hints at this character,’ he adds.

That character is most apparent in Arsham’s installation of amethyst basketballs, which takes over the gallery’s basement like some obsessive collector’s cavern. Realised in varying shades of violet, the balls, which vary in size, are cast from crushed crystals and compressed into moulds to great visual effect. ‘There are no rules on how to cast volcanic ash or crystal into these shapes, so the framework of that was really based on casting techniques that have existed for hundreds of years,’ he says. ‘They are quite rudimentary processes that I’ve then further developed and expanded on.’

As for the choices of blue and purple for his first foray into colour, Arsham says, ‘The final materials happened to be the first ones that really worked for me. But I did play around with jade and different types of selenite crystal. I also have a wide range of other crystals in various colours that we will do something with at some point.’ So watch this space.

As originally featured in the October 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*211)

INFORMATION
Daniel Arsham’s ‘Circa 2345’ is on view from 15 September – 22 October. For more information, visit the Galerie Perrotin website

ADDRESS

Galerie Perrotin
909 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10021

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Earlier this year, Kartell celebrated one of its most iconic pieces - Ferruccio Laviani's Bourgie lamp - with an exhibition of fourteen reinterpretations by a roster of international designers. This month the project has been expanded further, with the Bourgie being handed over to a group of American creatives, the results on display at the Greene Street showroom until 26 May - coinciding with New York Design Week - presenting a further exploration of the lamp's design and a tribute to its execution. It completes a big month for the brand, which has also just unveiled a re-designed and enhanced website, including for the first time an extensive e-store. Acting as an exploratory hub, the site allows users to delve deeper into the brand's history, to browse products and to access information about new projects and ventures. They can also admire other icons from Kartell's past, in addition to the legendary Bourgie.

Rafael de Cardenas' starting point was Ferruccio Laviani's transformation of a Baroque shape into a distilled design. Similarly, the New York-based designer further simplified the Bourgie, using its silhouette to create an installation of neon and mirror that multiplies the shape to infinity

Former Wallpaper* Design Awards judge Pharrell Williams applied his artistic versatility to the project, substituting the lamp's stand with a human arm holding the bulbs. According to the Williams, it 'represents the will of mankind in the daily plight of escaping the "shade" and the challenges of attempting to get closer to enlightenment.'

Kelly Wearstler's take on the Bourgie is a perfect marriage between Laviani's design and the American interior designer's aesthetic. Dissecting the object's base, Wearstler re-created it using her signature materials - a mix of stones and metal - covering the lampshade in strings of cord

Brazilian-born, New York-based artist Eli Sudbrack (aka Assume Vivid Astro Focus) gave a multi-level interpretation of the lamp, starting with a disco lamp idea and then developing its shade it to resemble a dunce hat. The artist wanted to 'turn something usually seen as negative bullying into a positive action, by transforming the dunce hat into a disco hat.'

Mathematician and science writer Martin Gardner described Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark as an 'impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature' in his 1974 treatise The Annotated Snark. Full of Boojums and Bandersnatches, the nonsense poem is an exploration of the inadequacy of language, meaning and symbols, and features a crew using a blank piece of paper as a map.

This is the territory into which the artist Daniel Arsham and architect Alex Mustonen have placed their work by naming their art and design studio Snarkitecture. 'The Hunting of the Snark tells the story of these misfits who are on a misguided search,' explain the pair. 'They set out into the ocean with a blank map, searching for this ineffable, unknown thing.' (The first edition of The Hunting of the Snark in 1876 also contained one of the first printed appearances of 'thingumajig', a word invaluable to those working at the wilder edges of the design world.)

Snarkitecture is, the pair say, a collaboration operating in territories between the disciplines of art and architecture. They met while studying at Cooper Union and have collaborated since at their Brooklyn studio. Their challenging projects and installations have included an exhibition at Miami's Volume Gallery, 'Funiture', which featured seemingly broken or falling apart furniture that was actually functional.

'We focus on the investigation of structure, material and programme and how these elements can be manipulated to serve new and imaginative purposes,' says Arsham. 'Snarkitecture aims to make architecture perform the unexpected.'

Wallpaper* paired a number of designers, including Snarkitecture, with wool from The Woolmark Company for our Wallpaper* Handmade exhibition, safe in the knowledge that they would all interpret the brief in radically different ways. We were not disappointed (see image gallery above). For their project, Arsham and Mustonen created a series of light fixtures made by stacking layers of thick wool felt to build up forms that recall familiar pendants. From the outside, the fixtures appear whole, while from the inside, excavations can be seen, cut into the interior to create a contoured landscape with a light at the end of it.

'The starting point for us working with wool was to reimagine the material within the context of a functional object,' explains Arsham. 'Thick felt offered the possibility of stacking the material to create a series of forms that were then cut into, exposing a range of excavated topographies that reveal a light concealed within. Suspended from the ceiling as a pendant or sitting on a table as a lamp, the wool creates an unexpected warmth and softness in an object that balances crisp lines with the sculptural texture of the excavated areas.' 

It has to be said: there is nothing like visiting Miami in December. Good weather and sandy beaches aside, our annual trip to the Floridian coast was all in the name of design and art, of course. In the last few years, the moneyed town has used its natural assets to attract the art, design, fashion and nightlife world's most illustrious characters, thus helping to secure Design Miami's place on the fair circuit.

Under the direction of Marianne Goebel for the second time, this year's fair was no slouch. As well as hosting an impressive selection of design galleries, both from home and abroad, Design Miami also presented three impressive projects from luxury industry bigwigs, Fendi, Perrier-Jouët and Swarovski.

All long-time advocates of cross-industry collaboration, the brands' efforts were particularly engaging due to the design talent they enlisted. With Design Miami taking on the role of instigator, Fendi added the next chapter to its ongoing Design Performances series by teaming up with Belgian designer Maarten de Ceulaer. Best known for his whimsical cabinets which at first look like a pile of colourful suitcases, de Ceulaer chose to reinterpret the fashion house's iconic Pequin motif in a three-dimensional way, creating an eye-catching landscape out of leather pieces in classic Fendi colours.

Perrier-Jouët, the new tipple of choice at Design Miami and Art Basel, also took advice from Goebel and her team before selecting the London-based Studio Glithero to create their mesmerising 'Lost Time' installation.

Swarovski Crystal Palace, the experimental design arm of the Austrian crystal makers, chose to back another Brit, Asif Khan, who's dexterity at architecture, furniture and industrial design had him perfectly placed to produce 'Parhelia', an interactive 20 ft structure encrusted with 1.3 million glittering crystals, which emulated an ice halo right on the tropical shores of Miami. Using a single LED as a light source, as well as harnessing the changing light conditions in the gallery space throughout the day, Khan created an inspired exploration of light and design.

Elsewhere within the fair, we were seduced by the combination of new and iconic collectible design on display. The French galleries did particularly well; Demisch Danant staged a wonderful tribute to Pierre Guariche, while Galerie Patrick Seguin's collection of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret was well-matched with an equally beautiful stand.

Cleverly positioned adjacent to Art Basel in the heart of South Beach, Design Miami was just the springboard for our week of perusing the emerging talent at NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance), enjoying the stellar program of talks by the likes of artist James Rosenquist (creator of the iconic Illy logo, which, 'along with the Mona Lisa, is one of the most reproduced paintings in the world', said Illy art director Carlo Bach), wandering the graffiti-lined streets of Wynwood, and exploring the Miami Design District - where Dior Homme and Louis Vuitton both got in on the art action. Not to mention heading out on festivity-filled nights that often led us to Andre Saraiva's pop-up club, Silencio, at The Delano. Once again, all in the name of art and design.

Containing almost 1.3 million Swarovski crystals, the inviting structure mimics a halo, a natural phenomenon created by light reflecting off ice crystals

Khan’s design also features an elliptical skylight, which cleverly incorporates Miami’s unique natural light – an element that particularly impressed the locals

Fendi added the next chapter to its ongoing Design Performances series by teaming up with Belgian designer Maarten de Ceulaer. Pictured are some of the works in his installation

The Design Performance in action. Best known for his whimsical cabinets which at first look like a pile of colourful suitcases, de Ceulaer chose to reinterpret the fashion house's iconic Pequin motif in a three-dimensional way, creating an eye-catching landscape out of leather

Intertwined lampposts by Pieke Bergmans, spotted on the Venice Projects' stand

'Float', a cast marble coffee table, by Snarkitecture for Volumes Gallery

Break', a lacquered wood and cast silicone cabinet, also by Snarkitecture

Galerie Kreo showed a collection called Cellae by François Bauchet, comprising nine pieces of furniture made from a clear-coloured felt that has been regularly punctured and soaked in a polymer-tinted resin

Detail view of the table, showing its modular construction

A shelving unit from the Cellae collection

Throughout the collection, Bauchet plays with angles, positioning the partitions of the modules in a slightly slanted manner

The Snarkitecture-designed entrance pavilion to Design Miami

Entitled 'Drift', the pavilion was made from inflated tubes

The Miami Design District also served up a rich mix of installations, exhibitions and more during the fair. Here, visitors had the chance to see Kenya Hara’s Architecture for Dogs project in the flesh. Sou Fujimoto’s ‘No dog, No Life!’ says it all

Designer graffiti on the Louis Vuitton store facade

A selection of monochrome products at Luminaire, which continues to be one of our favourite pitstops in the Miami Design District

Morgans Hotel Group and Van Wagner Communications emblazoned the sky with slogans by 15 art world heavyweights during Design Miami and Art Basel Miami Beach. This particular declaration came courtesy of John Baldessari

Baldessari also lent his artistry to a series of beach towels at The Standard Spa, Miami Beach

Fabrica presented its new Tutti Frutti collection of glassware at Benetton's freshly opened store during the fair. Conceived under the direction of Sam Baron, the glass fruit holders capture the fun-loving, tropical spirit of the city

'Top Cherry' is a fruit stand by Giorgia Zanellato, inspired by Miami's Art Deco architecture

'Guglielmo!' by Daniela Mesina captures the legend of William Tell

Fabrica was also responsible for the colourful, graphic interior of the store

The store's walls feature tropical palm leaves, painted by Mariana Fernandes

Meridiani's brand new US showroom in the heart of Wynwood

Graffiti in Wynwood - part of the Wynwood Walls project

More designer graffiti on NW 2nd Ave

‘Physichromie’ by Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz Diez caught our eye at Art Basel

San Franciscan gallery Ratio 3 exhibited this untitled glitter and concrete piece by Mitzi Pederson

A sculpture by Raphael Zarka at New York's Martos Gallery

‘Working Models’, 1955, by José de Rivera

A new direction for Chinese artist and Wallpaper* favourite, Li Wei

A work by James Rosenquist, who also gave a talk during Art Basel at a brunch hosted by Illy. The artist was the creative brains behind the coffee maker's iconic logo

Meticulous colour-coding on Ocean Drive

Back at Design Miami, the showstopping stand of Galerie Patrick Seguin offered up pieces by Le Corbusier, designed during his Chandigarh period, and Pierre Jeanneret

Belgian gallerist Caroline Van Hook presented several eclectic works during Design Miami, including these 'Quartz Mirrors' by Study O Portable

Furniture made from shredded paper by Jens Praet at Design Miami

Stools from the Enamelled Skin Copper series by Kwangho Lee

Hailing from Korea, Lee uses traditional enamelled techniques to treat welded copper pieces, like this console, at various temperatures

An elaborate necklace by Delfina Delettrez

Among the many gems presented by Didier Ltd, an original necklace by Meret Oppenheim

An amorphous chair from Maarten de Ceulaer's new 'Mutation' series

Parisian gallerist Francois Laffanour showed a collection of iconic pieces, such as this sofa by Jean Prouvé

A bookcase by Jean Prouvé, also part of Francois Laffanour's Galerie Downtown collection

Demische Danant gallery put on an impressive ode to mid-century designer Pierre Guariche. The rare works included this record table and counterbalanced floor lamp from 1958-62

An armchair and wall lamp, also by Pierre Guariche

Mathieu Matégot's 'Fauteuil Férotin' chair and 'Perfo Lux' standing lamp, shown by Jousse Enterprise

A side table by Mathieu Matégot, shown by Jousse Enterprise

Gallery Seomi from Korea presented a collection of ergonomic works, including this steel and wood console by Kim Sanghoon

A pair of 'Undulating Armrest' chairs by Brazilian designer, Joaquim Tenreiro, 1948, from R20th Century gallery

Acetate mirrors by Jean Baptiste Fastrez, shown by Galerie Kreo

An original façade by Jean Prouvé that he designed for schools in Cameroon in 1964

A rare vessel by Ettore Sottsass, presented by Galleria Colombari, Milan

Sketches by Gio Ponti

Nilufar showed a horizontal rendition of Maarten de Ceulaer's recognisable pile of suitcases

At the New Art Dealers Alliance fair, Cologne's Desaga gallery showed works by Nathalie du Pasquier

A painting by Nathalie du Pasquier

A sculpture by Julia Pfeiffer

A detail from Devon Dikeou's 'Not Quite Mrs. De Menil's Liquor Closet' installation at NADA

The walk-in installation was inspired by the liquor closet of art patron Dominique de Menil, who had art pieces mixed in with her glassware and booze

'Untitled (newspaper painting)' by Sadie Benning at Callicoon Gallery

Also at Callicoon Gallery was a series of 'syndrome paintings' by James Hoff

A creation from Noam Rappaport, on view at James Fuentes gallery

A work from Olivia Plender, presented by Crystal, Stockholm

Match VIII' by Miriam Bohm

Rodriguez also created this geometric mobile sculpture, with just a measuring tape

A new piece by Guadalajaran artist Javier Rodriguez in Curro & Poncho's booth space

'Mutual Guides' 2012, by Matthew Stone, from The Hole gallery