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Miami Design District/
Miami Design District presents Rock | Roll by Germane Barnes
Curated by Anava Projects, Rock | Roll marks the first time a Miami-based creative has won the highly competitive, invitation-only design commission. Conceived as a love letter to the people of Miami, the multi-scale installation draws on the vibrant visual language of Miami Carnival to honor the BIPOC communities who have contributed to Miami’s one-of-a-kind, polyethnic culture, from the city’s earliest foundations to today.
For both the fair entrance and the Design Districts’ central pedestrian corridors, Barnes designed a series of whimsical, larger-than-life seating capsules that rock back and forth when activated by users and feature banded strands of saturated colors reminiscent of Carnival’s hallmark feathered costumes.
With a nod to steel drums and the infectious joy of Soca music, Barnes also designed brightly-hued music-making ornaments in the lush native trees and palms planted throughout the Miami Design District. Finally, Rock | Roll includes an architectural-scale, free-floating dome that recalls a giant disco ball in both form and function. Suspended far overhead and animated by light and sound, the shiny, faceted structure will serve as a marker to an outdoor gathering space dedicated to sharing and enjoying community-driven storytelling. The project has been fabricated by Atlanta-based ALT BLD.
About Miami Design District/
The Miami Design District is a creative neighborhood dedicated to innovative fashion, design, art, architecture and dining experiences. The District is home to more than 170 flagship stores like Chanel, Hermès, Dior, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, and more – making it one of the world’s greatest shopping areas. The vision for a rejuvenated Design District – responsive to its historic, urban and tropical context – was codified into an urban master plan developed by award-winning master planners Duany Plater-Zyberk, with the additional participation of architects including Sou Fujimoto, Aranda/Lasch, Aranguren & Gallegos, K/R, Johnston Marklee. The Miami Design District embodies a singular dedication to the unity of design, fashion, art and architecture and a commitment to encourage a neighborhood comprised of creative experiences including public art installations by Buckminster Fuller, Zaha Hadid, John Baldessari, Marc Newson, Konstantin Grcic, Xavier Veilhan, Urs Fisher and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and others. The Miami Design District's landscape masterplan by Island Planning Corporation comprises lush green spaces, rooftop gardens, an impressive Palm collection, and streets lined with indigenous canopy trees, offering shade and a lowered ambient climate as a relief from the South Florida sun. As Miami becomes increasingly known for its own rich culture, the growth of the Miami Design District further reflects how the city is deserving of its place on the global stage.
About Studio Barnes/
Germane Barnes’ award-winning research and design practice investigates the connection between architecture and identity, examining architecture’s social and political agency through historical research and design speculation. Mining architecture’s social and political agency, he examines how the built environment influences Black domesticity.
In addition to his eponymous practice, Barnes is currently an Assistant Professor and the Director of The Community Housing & Identity Lab (CHIL) at the University of Miami School of Architecture, a testing ground for the physical and theoretical investigations of architecture’s social and political resiliency. Barnes’ work has been presented and supported by several illustrious institutions and organizations, including The Museum of Modern Art NY, San Francisco MoMA, LACMA, Chicago Architecture Biennial, MAS Context, The Graham Foundation, Design Miami/, and The National Museum of African American History. He is winner of the 2021 Rome Prize in Architecture, the 2021 Harvard Wheelwright Prize, the 2021 Architectural League Prize, and an inaugural grant from Theaster Gates and Prada’s Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab.
For more information, visit miamidesigndistrict.net.
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