Dezeen promotion: well-known international designers have each donated glass objects to Luminaire's GlasLove auction (+ slideshow).

Miami-based design company Luminaire has launched the fourth edition of its Love auction series to raise funds for the research programmes at Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Miami, Florida.

The Love auction is based on a different theme each edition. The 2016 fundraiser, named GlasLove, focuses on glass products, and will coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

International auction house Philips has partnered with Luminaire to sponsor and conduct the online and live auctions, which run from 19 September until 11 October 2016. Bidders can register online at www.phillips.com/glaslove.

Japanese designer Oki Sato and the Italian glass manufacturing design company Glas Italia are offering over thirty prototype pieces made for his retrospective 2015 exhibition Nendo-Works, held at Museo della Permanente in Milan, including the Slide glass furniture.

Italian brand Venini is donating a coloured glass timer designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, while Czech company Lasvit will offer lights influenced by colourful sweets designed by the Campana brothers.

There will also be a live auction and gala dinner on Thursday 6 October 2016 at the Moore Building in the Miami Design District.

Other products up for auction include a bent glass bench by Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa, and a mirrored bell table designed by Sebastian Herkner for German brand Classicon.

Pieces by Marcel Wanders, Nao Tamura, Omer Arbel, Ivan Baj, Jakub Berdych, Tord Boontje, Todd Bracher, Max Ingrand, Nao Tamura and Tokujin Yashioka will also be available to purchase.

The manufacturers who have produced and donated also include Arcade, Bocci, FontanaArte, Lasvit, Swarovski, Anna Torfs and WonderGlass.

The Luminaire Lab in Miami's Design District will display the auction items from 19 September till 11 October 2016 to coincide with the online auction.

To preview the auction, visit www.phillips.com/glaslove.

Read on for more information from the organisers:

GlasLove: Redesigning the Course of Cancer

Glass is characterised by the duality of its strong yet fragile nature. Poetically and metaphorically, glass reflects the spirit of those battling cancer, and therefore, it is the material of choice for the fourth edition of Luminaire's Love fundraising auctions to benefit cancer research.

Driven by their desire to give back and help find a cure, Luminaire founders Nasir and Nargis Kassamali are hosting GlasLove. This year's design auction coincides with Breast Cancer Awareness Month and reinforces the multiple roles design can play as a problem-solving endeavour.

Strong yet brittle, translucent yet heat-resistant, glass has many contradictory properties. It is these very properties that define and make glass so versatile, functional, and beautiful. For GlasLove, these beautiful glass works to be auctioned will be imbued with another property: Love.

Cancer is a disease that touches almost every family. It can destroy, yet ironically, it also can also serve as a new lens onto the world. The illness tests the strength, resilience, and character of both patients and their families. Helping find a cure for this tragic disease is what propelled the Kassamalis and their company, Luminaire, to spearhead this successful fundraising series.

A profound unity with friends and colleagues who share a passionate commitment to make a difference epitomises Luminaire's Love series, which recognises design's transformative power. These innovative and successful fundraising auction events began in 2006 with PuppyLove, when the Kassamalis decided to create the series to help raise research funds for and awareness of cancer. PaperLove followed in 2008, while DesignLove took place in 2011.

The Love initiative has also included fashion designers like Issey Miyake, architects Zaha Hadid and Herzog & De Meuron, as well as visual artists Arne Quinze, Michele Oka Doner, José Parlá.

The Kassamalis, thus far, have raised almost a million dollars through the design auction. The Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has been the beneficiary from the inception of the series.

Located in Miami and Chicago, Luminaire is internationally recognised as a vanguard of good design. Founded in 1974 by Nasir and Nargis Kassamali, Luminaire has earned the reputation as being the leader in presenting and providing exclusive design to the United States.

As part of their vision, the Kassamali's have made it their top priority to actively engage the American public by bringing some of the world's most renowned designers to Luminaire for open, interactive design lectures and exhibits. Over the past four decades, Luminaire has remained the premiere place for creative solutions, inspiration, education, reflection, and sometimes, a museum fix.

Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Health System and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, is among the nations' leading cancer centers and South Florida's only Cancer Center of Excellence. With the combined strength of more than 120 cancer researchers and 130 cancer specialists, Sylvester discovers, develops, and delivers more targeted therapies, providing the next generation of cancer clinical care – precision cancer medicine – to each patient.

Phillips is a leading global platform for buying and selling 20th and 21st century art and design. With dedicated expertise in the areas of art, design, photographs, editions, watches, and jewellery, Phillips offers professional services and advice on all aspects of collecting. Auctions and exhibitions are held at sale rooms in New York, London, Geneva, and Hong Kong, while clients are further served through representative offices based throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. Phillips also offers an online auction platform accessible anywhere in the world.

www.luminaire.com