Industrial designer Konstantin Grcic's installed seats made of netting suspended from a metal structure at Design Miami/ last week. 

Located in the courtyard of the design fair, Netscape featured a six-point star-shaped metal frame with netting forming a series of hammock-like seats.

The installation was commisioned by Design Miami/ for the fair, where Grcic was presented with the Designer of the Year Award 2010 (see our earlier story).

See all our stories about Konstantin Grcic »

The following information is from Design Miami/:

Konstantin Grcic

Each December, the Design Miami/ designer of the year award recognises an internationally renowned designer or studio whose body of work demonstrates exceptional quality, innovation and influence, while expanding the boundaries of design. Selected by a committee of esteemed design luminaries from around the world, each designer of the year must demonstrate a consistent history of outstanding work, along with a significant new project, career milestone, or other noteworthy achievement within the previous twelve months. This year, we are thrilled to name Konstantin Grcic as the winner of the 2010 Designer of the Year Award.

For years, konstantin has been celebrated for an exceptionally thoughtful approach to advanced design, factoring in not only aesthetics but also a wide array of the most pertinent questions facing design creation today: how are we to deal with material scarcity? how can the relationship between objects and their sites of usage be harnessed to create more effective design work? how should design interface with other disciplines — art, architecture, theory, etc. — to maximize its potential? how can we simultaneously tap design’s history while fulfilling the promise of new materials and new technologies, while also creating humanistic work that responds to the pressing needs of the present?

In addition to designing objects for both mass and limited-edition markets, konstantin has also begun to direct his unique vision to curating design exhibitions, always reminding us of what matters most in design production and discourse. konstantin is a true designer’s designer. We are honored to recognize his immense talent and his impressive accomplishments.

Konstantin Grcic was born in 1965 in Munich, Germany. he apprenticed as a cabinet maker at parnham college, uk, and then earned a degree in Industrial Design at the royal college of Art in london, where he went on to work for Jasper Morrison, before establishing his firm konstantin Grcic Industrial Design in Munich in 1991.

kGID has since become one of the most important players in the international design industry, creating objects that have garnered numerous important awards (e.g., the compasso d’oro in 2001) and that have been acquired for the permanent collections of the world’s most prestigious museums (MoMA, New york; centre Georges pompidou, paris; Die Neue Sammlung, Munich; and others). his impressive roster of clients includes vitra, Magis, classicon, flos and Established & Sons, and his limited-edition work is represented by Galerie kreo in Paris.

the commission

to commemorate this award, each recipient is given a major commission to be unveiled at Design Miami/. konstantin has chosen to create a two-part project. the first part involves a six-point, star-shaped installation featuring hammock-like seats, designed specifically in response to Design Miami/’s temporary structure and an idea of how to service fair visitors in an original, novel way.

More than a seating element, ‘Netscape’ is conceived as a catalyst for social interaction. the project embodies konstantin’s acute sensitivity to the physical site and to the contextual demands of the given project. We know our visitors will enjoy putting this project to good use. The second part of konstantin’s commission involves a special exhibition of the designer’s favorite projects representing the remarkable arc of his career.

The works in the exhibition, chosen by Grcic himself, include seminal pieces displayed on readymade modeling stands placed in front of large-scale digital images taken in konstantin’s studio. through this presentation, viewers are invited into konstantin’s world, where they can glimpse the logical yet romantic process that is so important to his work. We would like to thank Nasir kassamali and luminaire for generously providing objects for konstantin’s exhibition.

See also:

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Konstantin Grcic at Design Miami/ 2010	Bench Between Pillars by Ryuji Nakamura Architects	Pole Dance by SO-IL at P.S.1