Roaming By Design

So we're saying goodbye to May, marvelous month that it was, and stepping into June with our eyes on tweetups and junkets that will serve as great roaming opportunities, and we'll definitely be reporting back (be sure to check out our sister site adroyt for some of the fun--okay, so she's the smarter sister but we're still cute here at RBD!).

We had a blast at Alessi and once again Marcel was on the scene, um, actually, he was the scene! A group of bloggers gathered to tweet what the Maestro of Moooi had to say about his designing mind. 

A fab time was had by all at the Museum of Art and Design as we hosted a Tweetup during the opening party of MAD's exhibition "Are You A Hybrid," curated by Stephen Burks. 

GD Cucine was hopping with a hip vibe as design devotees feasted on freshly prepared Italian fare and on Cleto Munari's vision, which was sprinkled around the showroom in the form of the "Il Magnifici 7," a colorful collection of furnishings that popped within the serene backdrop of sleek kitchen charisma.

Our Tweetup during Moss Gallery's Fraternal Twins event was packed!

Soho was one rocking nabe during much of the week, our Moss tweetup being a highlight. We hit so many showrooms on Monday night that we stumbled around in sensory overload, ending the evening at Scavolini's showroom with its lively atmosphere, fantabulous food and hip crowd.

There were so many events, so little time, which is about how we always describe ICFF week in New York City; that said, we did our stellar best to make it to some of the hottest parties and unearth the best in design offerings. Oh yes; there was the show itself! Here's one of our favorite offerings: James DeWulf's Ping Pong table, in concrete, which can also serve as a dining room table.

Detail of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Table: Can't Beat That!

There is something to be said for waiting patiently for "the next big thing." That said, I have absolutely no patience when it comes to postponing visionaries being celebrated in our American design milieu, which in so many ways lacks the spark that I’ve been seeing in Europe. We’re about to get an important infusion of that brilliance when Cleto Munari finally debuts the talent he's fostered for over four decades in New York City on February 2nd, and I believe this exhibition will prove Munari’s lasting impact on the world of design. Here’s some background on the man I like to refer to as the “Modern Design Poet”: In 1973, through his close friendship with Carlo Scarpa, Cleto Munari began collaborations with a stellar list of international architects and artists that resulted in functional items of beauty such as furniture, rugs, glassware, jewelry, watches and pens. Scarpa and Munari produced cutlery and sterling silver tableware, and Munari went on to design products with Aulenti, Botta, Portoghesi, Ito, Sottsass, Hollein, Mangiarotti, Tusquets, Paladino, Siza, Mendini, R. Meyer, Graves, Isozaki, Hoppenheim, Shire, Eisenmann, Venturi, Tigerman, Pelli, Bellini, Sipek, Thun, and Zanuso.

Cleto Munari in the Proust Chair

In 1980 Munari created a silverware and gold jewelry collection, called Masterpieces, with contributions by more than 50 architects and artists from around the world. The collection has been exhibited in 120 museums, and is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Munari has now collaborated with Alessandro Mendini for over 30 years. Together they have been responsible for silver accessories, jewelry, a pen dedicated to Toni Morrison (from the Book of 5 Pens Collection), and a new 2008 collection of furniture, rugs and silver sculptures. Munari had only briefly worked with furniture in the past and has just recently felt ready for the challenge of creating new collections, including a line he designed with Mendini in 2008, which expresses the architect’s lyrical way of looking at life and includes etchings taken from his personal drawings that he refers to as “decorative doilies.”

Munari does not understand how anyone can live with furniture devoid of color. He has told me that each time he enters his house he has the impression that he is “invaded by the music of all the colors.” To him, it is poetry. His newest collection is entitled “I Magfinci 7,” a series of tables designed by Cleto, the beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet Mark Strand, painter Sandro Chia, artist Mimmo Paladino, architect Mario Botta, and Mendini.

Siza Vieira's pen designed for Saramago

The Pulitzer Prizes are being announced today at 3 p.m. and as a writer, I am anxious to learn which names will be added to the list of history’s literary luminaries. Beyond my love of words, I’m a writer who values aesthetics greatly—it’s likely why my path led me to a career as a design and architecture journalist. When my latest book, Four Florida Moderns, debuted recently, I was given an incredible gift by a dear friend—a beautiful writing instrument that I was to wield at my book signings. It was designed by Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza Vieira for Cleto Munari’s tribute to five Nobel laureates—another award that distinguishes the world’s greatest writers from the rest of us. When I pulled it from its artful box, I looked at its architectonic beauty in awe. Munari asked Vieira to create the pen in honor of Portuguese author Jose Saramago, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1998. In his book Blindness, the author tells the story of a fictitious country whose entire population was suddenly treated to a loss of sight. Rather than describe the lack of vision suffered by the masses as a plunge into darkness, as is commonplace in literature, Saramago’s characters suffered “white” blindness—his protagonist describing it as being “caught in a mist”; as having “fallen into a milky sea.” It may seem like a small distinction of originality but I believe it is subtleties like this that signal the mark of a great talent. If my pen brings me a smidgen of the creative genius I find in Saramago’s work, I will feel blessed indeed! The other four pairings that brought the pens to life are Japanese architect Toyo Ito and Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz; Italian architect Alessandro Mendini and American author Toni Morrison; Spanish architect Oscar Tusquets Blanca and Canadian author Saul Bellow; and Munari himself, who designed the pen inspired by Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka.

Alvaro Siza Vieira

In order to preserve the process that resulted from the collaborations, Munari published The Book of Five Pens, which holds biographies of the architects and authors, renderings of each pen, excerpts of prose by the authors and a replica of the letters written to Munari that describe each author’s personal relationship to the act of writing. I feel humbled to have been given such a heartfelt gift and I have to admit that each time I use the instrument it feels like a celebration of a fine literary lineage, which I aspire to deserve. The pen is also so architecturally substantial that it makes the act of writing feel like a bold declaration, even when—or perhaps because—I’m most often signing my name. Munari—a designer, patron and curator from Vicenza, Italy—has launched so many careers and made design celebrities of so many talented people throughout history that I will go so far as to say we will someday be awarding the Munari Prize to some of the most distinguished names in design. To see one of the visionary’s latest projects, visit my Examiner page. There you’ll find the Magnificent 7, a set of limited edition tables designed by Munari, Alessandro Mendini, Mario Botta, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sandro Chia, Mimmo Paladino and Mark Strand. Asking poets to design tables: now that’s what I call A Movable Feast!