DESIGN MIAMI - DECEMBER 2008

As main sponsor of Design Miami 2008, Swarovski Crystal Palace will bring new work by Ross Lovegrove to the Design Miami pavilion in what is sure to be a show-stopping installation.

Ross Lovegrove has designed a table and chandelier installation entitled Liquid Space. The concept is centred symmetrically around the interplay of materials and light and the synergies associated with pure materials and their refractive, reflective optical beauty.

It is a dining art space whereby each and every single element works together as a single entity, in harmony and in pure material expression.

As an installation piece the chandelier appears to have melted through the ceiling, viscously inverted to deliver three-dimensional light above and below the tables. The impact of the polished aluminium surface is to reflect the total concentrated mass of the Swarovski crystals and capture the liquidity of light interplay.

LIQUID SPACE CHANDELIER
Swarovski crystals are suspended in the shape of a vortex, and are embedded with an LED lighting system that can change colour in an instance via remote control. The entire vertical piece is also automated so that it can lift up and liberate the space above the tables. However in its fully extended position it is suspended below the table surface thus illuminating the sub forms of the tables and the floor below. The chandelier shown is part of a limited edition series and is available upon commission from Swarovski Crystal Palace, whereby the height can be adjusted in manufacture to accommodate different ceiling heights.

BIOFORM QUARTER TABLES
The Bioform Quarter tables are an extension of Ross Lovegrove’s design art works, milled directly from solid blocks of aluminium by a UK-based bespoke car maker. They are polished to the highest mirror finish and represent a super liquid approach to minimalist organic forms. As quarter tables they can be grouped in a circle to form an 8 to 12-seater dining table but also they can be detached and dispersed into the corners of a room as four individual tables, creating an open centre space for informal entertaining. Alternatively they can form two half circles against walls to open the space as large consol tables.

The Tables are available in an edition of 8 plus two prototypes and 2 artists’ proofs.
The tables on display are the second generation prototypes.

In addition to the new work that will be shown in the Design Miami pavilion, Swarovski Crystal Palace will be exhibiting multiple Blossom chandeliers and Cavern benches in the curatorial Design Miami programme which explores the theme of the Natural World.

Swarovski, the world’s most prestigious manufacturer of precision cut crystal, is dedicated to its work with contemporary designers. Swarovski Crystal Palace is a revolutionary project that has aimed to create signature interpretations of light and design using the emotive medium of cut crystal. Whilst celebrating and reinterpreting the rich traditions of the chandelier, Swarovski Crystal Palace has broken barriers, played with the rules and opened a new chapter in the history of lighting, art and design.

Now in its seventh year, Swarovski Crystal Palace has worked with some of the world’s foremost and collectable designers including Zaha Hadid, Yvés Behar, Studio Job, Tom Dixon, Ron Arad, Tokujin Yoshioka and Fernando and Humberto Campana. Design Miami has established itself as the preeminent international fair for limited-edition design and the partnership with Swarovski has developed from a natural synergy in the support and promotion of groundbreaking new design.

"Swarovski Crystal Palace is proud to be associated with Design Miami as we believe strongly in supporting contemporary design and art. I have been honoured to have worked with some incredible artists who have created pieces for Swarovski Crystal Palace that blur the boundaries between art and function. Design Miami is an important showcase for the wealth of talent that exists today." Nadja Swarovski

Notes to editors:

DESIGN MIAMI PAVILION OPENING TIMES
Public Hours of Admission
December 3-6, 2008
11.00h–19.00h

Press Preview / 13:00h-15:00h
December 2, 2008
Registration Required

ROSS LOVEGROVE
Ross Lovegrove is a designer and visionary whose work is considered to be at the very apex of stimulating a profound change in the physicality of our three-dimensional world.

Inspired by the logic and beauty of nature, his designs possess a trinity between technology, materials science and intelligent organic form, creating what many industrial leaders see as the new aesthetic expression for the 21st Century.

There is always embedded a deeply human and resourceful approach in his designs, which project an optimism, and innovative vitality in everything he touches from cameras to cars to trains, aviation and architecture.

Ross has completed projects for amongst others Airbus Industries, Kartell, Ceccotti, Cappellini, Idee, Moroso, Luceplan, Driade, Peugeot, Apple Computers, Issey Miyake, Vitra,Motorola,Biomega, LVMH,Yamagiwa Corporation, Tag Heuer, Hackman, Alias, Herman Miller, Japan Airlines and Toyo Ito Architects in Japan. Winner of numerous international awards his work has been extensively published and exhibited internationally including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum NY, Axis Centre Japan, Pompidou Centre, Paris and the Design Museum, London, when in 1993 he curated the first Permanent Collection.

SWAROVSKI
113 years ago, in 1895, Daniel Swarovski I, a Bohemian inventor and visionary, moved to the village of Wattens, Tyrol in Austria, with his newly-invented machine for cutting and polishing crystal jewellery stones. From these beginnings, which revolutionised the fashion world, Swarovski has grown to be the world’s leading producer of precision-cut crystal, for fashion, jewellery and more recently lighting, architecture and interiors. Today, the company, still based in Wattens, family-owned and run by 4th and 5th generation family members, has a global reach, with some 22,000 employees, a presence in over 120 countries and a turnover in 2007 of 2.56 billion Euros. Swarovski comprises two major divisions, one producing and selling loose crystals to the industry and the other creating design-driven finished products. Swarovski crystal components, known by their product brand names CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements for fashion and STRASS® Swarovski® Crystal for architecture and light, have become an essential ingredient of international design. Showing the creativity that lies at the heart of the company, Swarovski’s own-brand lines of accessories, jewellery and home décor are sold through more than 1150 Swarovski stores and concessions in all major fashion capitals, while the exclusive Daniel Swarovski accessories collection has become the company’s Couture signature. The Swarovski Crystal Society has close to 400,000 members worldwide, keen collectors of the celebrated crystal figurines. And in Wattens, Crystal Worlds, the multi-media crystal museum, has attracted over 7 million visitors since it was opened in 1995, as a celebration of Swarovski’s universe of innovation and inspiration, of crystal as the ultimate creative material. The Swarovski corporation also includes four industrial brands, Tyrolit®, manufacturing grinding tools, Swareflex, for road safety reflectors, Optik, producing precision optical instruments and Signity, Swarovski’s brand for genuine and created gemstones.

For press information, including interview requests and images, please contact:
Amy Dollamore, Camron PR, T: +44 (0) 20 7420 1727 amy@camron.co.uk

For information on Swarovski Crystal Palace and its designers please contact:
Project enquiries: Sarah Hammond, T: +44 (0) 20 70166784 sarah.hammond@swarovski.com
Sales enquiries: Eve-Marie Ayer, T: +44 (0) 207 0166791 eve.marie-ayer@swarovski.com

View exclusive Swarovski Crystal Palace footage at Design Miami on www.swarovskisparkles.tv

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