Courtesy Nathan Ceddia/Bompas & Parr
Flavor-based experiential design studio Bompas & Parr are experts in the art of jelly-making. Their architectural jelly installations have included replicas of Buckingham Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and Harrods.
Courttesy Greta Illieva/Bompas & Parr
The studio continues to push the boundaries of contemporary food design: a recent installation involved visitors walking through clouds of breathable booze.
Courtesy Henrik Blomqvist
The Shit Museum's new series of tableware, flowerpots, vases, tiles and tables may look like they're made from terracotta, but "merdacotta" is a more accurate description.
Courtesy Henrik Blomqvist
A mixture of recycled cow dung and clay, merdacotta is formed by extracting the methane and urea from manure, removing unwelcome odors. The methane is then burnt to produce electricity, minimizing waste.
Courtesy Elizabeth Salonen/Mottoform Studio
Salonen's designs combine hand-knit paper yarn with LEDs to make rounded pendant lamps. Her Loop lamps are an exploration of how traditional crafts -- in this case knitting -- can merge with technology in the creation of functional objects. Each lamp is knitted and crocheted by a local artisan, each with their own distinctive style, meaning no two lamps are the same.
Courtesy gt2P
For their Remolten stool series, Chilean design studio gt2P (which stands for "great things to people") coated heat-resistant materials porcelain, stoneware and concrete in basaltic andesite -- a porous, lightweight rock found on active volcanic slopes across Chile.
Courtesy gt2P
There are 2,000 volcanoes in Chile, 500 of which are active. The stools are designed to celebrate the beauty of natural forms. By manipulating the temperature of the cooling lava, the designers have given each stool a unique texture, from rough and pimpled to smooth and dripping, as seen here.
COURTESY GALERIE KREO
German industrial designer Konstantin Grcic uses a new composite material, minero, to create an experimental chair based on a 15th-century Italian painting. Grcic's Hieronymus series, presented at Design Miami by Galerie Kreo, is designed to emulate the spatial qualities of the furniture depicted in Antonello da Messina's 1475 painting "St Jerome." ("Hieronymus" is the Greek and Latin form of the name Jerome).
The Hieronymus Minero seat is molded from a composite of concrete and resin developed especially for this piece.
The Hieronymus Minero seat is molded from a composite of concrete and resin developed especially for this piece.
Courtesy Jaydan Moore
During Design Miami, Ornamentum will present a joint exhibition showcasing the work of American metalworker Jaydan Moore (work seen here), and British silversmith David Clarke.
Courtesy David Clarke
Both designers use reconfigurations of antique metal ware -- silver and pewter domestic objects such as spoons, sugar bowls and teapots -- to create new pieces, such as platters, sculptures or, in this case, candlesticks.
Adam Reich
Born in Minnesota in 1989, Fulbright Fellow Misha Kahn is known for his unconventional use of materials. Some of his latest works will be on view in Miami as part of New York-based gallery Friedman Benda's group show.
To make his "The Wild One China Cabinet" (seen here), the designer used woven grass, car parts, garbage and sea glass from Swaziland. Another of Kahn's designs, "The Slippery Feel of Inevitably," is a 12-foot hand-woven mohair tapestry of clay, paper dolls and computer rendering, depicting a kaleidoscopic landscape of Jell-O moulds.
To make his "The Wild One China Cabinet" (seen here), the designer used woven grass, car parts, garbage and sea glass from Swaziland. Another of Kahn's designs, "The Slippery Feel of Inevitably," is a 12-foot hand-woven mohair tapestry of clay, paper dolls and computer rendering, depicting a kaleidoscopic landscape of Jell-O moulds.
Courtesy Marlene Houissoud
French-born designer Marlene Huissoud's interest is in materials derived from insects, such as honeybees and Indian silkworms.
She sees insects as her partners in the design process, and explores how their natural waste can be harnessed in design. Her Bee Vessel vases, for instance, are made from honeybee bio resin.
She sees insects as her partners in the design process, and explores how their natural waste can be harnessed in design. Her Bee Vessel vases, for instance, are made from honeybee bio resin.
Courtesy Anne Purkiss
As the son and grandson of flower-growers, Marcin Rusak has long been fascinated by natural sources of decoration. Taking inspiration from the mechanisms and processes underpinning today's corporate flower industry, his Flora furniture collection features colorful blooms set in black resin -- a nod to the ephemeral nature of floral beauty.
CNN
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Design is a discipline that tends to take itself rather seriously. Perhaps this is why so many designers return time and again to dependable, tried-and-tested materials like hardwoods, aluminum and steel, all of which confer a sense of solidity, modernity and sophistication.
At this year’s Design Miami, however, a small group of adventurous designers has cast off convention, trading in more traditional materials in favor of flowers, beehives, car parts and garbage, to name just a few of the unusual materials on display.
In celebration of the opening of Design Miami, CNN Style has highlighted studios from across the globe that are experimenting with materiality, from flowerpots made of cow dung to a replica of Buckingham Palace rendered in jelly.
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Though their products are wildly different in form, what unites these designers is a sense of curiosity and play – evidence that design works best when it doesn’t conform.