Hasta La Ideas

Design Miami’s move this year to a larger venue closer to the hub of Art Basel is paying off with increased foot traffic and buying buzz for the fair’s fourth go-round, which runs through Sunday in Hall 5 of the Basel exhibition complex. Design Miami/Basel‘s 27 exhibitors—which include some of our favorite New York City design emporiums: Max Protech, Sebastian + Barquet, and Cristina Grajales Inc—are reporting “reassuring results,” according to ARTINFO’s Judd Tully. “I had no big expectations,” gallery owner Patrick Seguin told Tully, “but people are really buying.” And by “really buying,” he means parting with €130,000 ($183,200) or so for a unique Charlotte Perriand bookcase from 1960 and paying €6,500 ($9,100) a pop for Le Corbusier wall units. Seguin is also doing a brisk business in the enduringly irresistable work of Corbu’s talented cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, whose sofa sets and armchairs have commanded five figures. On the contemporary side, the Eindhoven crew are a smash hit, with “Designer of the Future” Nacho Carbonell earning the approval (and the €84,000) of none other than Brad Pitt.

Next up for the Design Miami juggernaut? Asia. According to The Art Newspaper, Design Miami founder Craig Robins has entered into preliminary agreements with officials from Seoul (your 2010 world design capital) to bring the fair there as early as March 2012. The specifics will depend on the progress of the city’s new design museum and convention center, designed by Zaha Hadid.

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