Design Miami presents “Designer of the Year Award” to Maarten Baas
24th September '09
Each year this prestigious award is presented to a designer who has made a significant contribution to the progression of design. The chosen designer must have a demonstrated history of consistent work, as well as outstanding work created within the last twelve months.
At only 31 years old, Dutch-born Maarten Baas is strikingly young, but has had an amazing impact on the world of design in an unprecedented short period of time. "The decision to give the award to someone as young as Baas might seem controversial, but he has already changed the course of design history," Design Miami/ Associate Director Wava Carpenter comments. "His work has transformed the way collectors understand the landscape of contemporary design and has opened the market to a younger generation of designers. Baas pioneered the way with his first collection Smoke, his graduation project which became an international design sensation through his collaboration with New York gallerist Murray Moss."
New work, commissioned for the award, along with a retrospective of Baas’s work, will be presented at the December edition of Design Miami. This new collection will include a series of cabinets. Like Baas’s previous work, the new cabinets will give an animated impression, “like abstract monsters behaving like cabinets” explains Design Miami/ Director Ambra Medda. In addition, Baas will launch a new addition to his Real Time project, which has been created for the Zuiderzeemuseum.
