If you're the kind of person who looks at a conceptual work of art and thinks, "I could do that," Design Miami's tent this year is going to piss you off. (Also, stop that. You're annoying.)
If, on the other hand, you're big on inventive architecture, natural materials, and site-specific design, the entrance to the annual design-centered sister to Art Basel in Miami Beach will be right up your alley.
The fair has commissioned formlessfinder, a New York-based architectural practice, to design the entrance to the fair this year. Their plan: A giant pile of sand.
See also: Design Miami 2012 Visitors Will Enter Beneath A Giant Inflatable Canopy
Inventively designed entranceways are an annual tradition for the Design Miami tent; last year, the architecture firm Snarkitecture designed a giant canopy made of inflatable white columns titled Drift to anchor the event.
formlessfinder's TENT PILE starts with an enormous, pyramid-shaped sand structure. On top of that sand pile, appearing to balance precariously on the point of the pyramid, will be an aluminum roof. formlessfinder's designers say that the structure will provide a shaded seating area that will naturally create cool breezes.
But will Design Miami attendees feel comfortable sitting beneath a giant metal roof that looks like it could tilt and fall at any second? Funnily enough, that's kind of the point. In a statement, Design Miami explains that, because of its sandy foundations, "Any kind of construction in Miami must take into account the loose and shifting layer on which the final structure will ultimately float."
The roof, meanwhile, references what formlessfinder describes as "a kind of tropical
post-war modernism" in Miami architecture, "distinguished by hybrid indoor/outdoor spaces of which the cantilevered roof seemed particularly emblematic."
Think of it as a deconstructed version of Miami architecture. Or at least what outsiders perceive Miami architecture to be. Despite the city's reputation for sandy beaches, Curbed Miami points out, some South Florida beaches are actually running out of sand.
Follow Ciara LaVelle on Twitter @ciaralavelle.
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