Hasta La Ideas

It just finished up yesterday, awarding Maarten Baas as designer of the year. Pictures after the jump.

First off, the event is annually held in Miami, with a sister show in Basel Switzerland every June. It aims to bring together “dealers, collectors, designers, curators and critics from around the world in celebration of design culture and commerce”. You can read more about the event here.

As for Maarten Baas, this years winner, he’s a young designer from the Netherlands who’s being hailed for his unique ability “to generate radically new ideas, constantly rethinking and reinventing design processes to mesmerizing effect.” I’ve including some images below from one of his earlier projects ‘Smoke’, 2002. He lit fire to iconic chairs, cooked for a bit, extinguished, coated to prevent further degradation, and re-upholstered.