In order to attract and keep their attention, Chwat presented works that contradict with as much as they compliment one another, in “intense and interesting” dialogues, he said. Pierre Paulin’s seamless Dos à Dos sofa riffed off of Gonçalo Mabunda’s unique African Man Throne, an armchair composed of deactivated welded weapons, for example, while Paulin’s geometrical Cathedral table spoke to a spiky surrealistic chandelier by British James Lethbridge. Early sales at the booth included several of Janette Laverrière’s mirrors at prices ranging from €15,000 and €20,000 and her Nenuphar table for €20,000.

But while Chwat saw mainly European buyers, Parisian Philippe Jousse from Jousse Entreprise, who had a cache of Perriand, Prouvé, and Pergay objects, reported a rush of Americans. He had just sold one of his favorite pieces, a desk by Atelier Van Lieshout (in an edition of 3), for €50,000. Another standout was a dark, crude, surrealistic, and yet extremely elegant, wood chair/bench by Rick Owens: “Only five are left out of the edition of 20,” said Jousse.

Matt Langton from London’s spirited Albion gallery eagerly revealed three unique “Transcloud” luminaries from the Campana brothers, and said two were bought by the same collector for between $30,000 and $50,000. He also reported that Ross Lovegrove’s Long Liquid Bench was on reserve for $150,000.

Chinese diva Pearl Lam chose to highlight works by Studio Makkink & Bey, Shao Fan, and Maarten Baas at the booth for her gallery Contrast. The Shanghai space hosts a residency program that invites international artists and designers to China to investigate traditional Chinese craftsmanship, materials, or imagery. By combining these time-honored methods with contemporary ideas, the artists and designers create new works that reflect contemporary China.

Currently collaborating with Dutch designer Jurgen Bey and architect Rianne Makkink’s Studio Makkink & Bey, Contrast presented in its Basel booth highly conceptual projects such as Makkink & Bey’s “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” Inspired by the beauty and optimism of Chinese propaganda posters, the work re-imagines propaganda for the world of cleaning, by using Chinese porcelain, silk fabrics, woodwork, and reversed inside paintings. Cleaning cabinets filled with gloves, aprons, and other surprises are made luxurious, composed of silk boxes that can be assembled on top of a wooden base. “Cabinets are very popular,” said one of Lam’s assistants, who also indicated that the booth had drawn a diverse clientele of Americans, Middle Easterners, and Europeans. In addition to the M&B work, Baas’s “Plastic Chair in Wood” (€5,500) had been a big hit, she said, and reserves had been placed on all five in an edition of his “Chinese objects object,” a much more complex piece.  

Injecting some additional youthful zing into the fair were the four honored “designers of the future.” The prestigious Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne, led by the extravagant Pierre Keller, showcased a brilliant new collection of blown-glass lighting designed specifically for Design Miami/Basel by a select group of students under the guidance of honoree Max Lamb and in collaboration with Matteo Gonet, a young glassblower from Bern. And Weisshaar and Kram’s exhibited works confirmed their undisputable talent. The two fellows passionately explained their mission to parametrically generate a family of objects with different typologies, including stools, pedestals, and tables of different heights. The breakthrough was “Breeding Tables,” for which the designers intelligently intertwine product development and media design, while taking advantage of the newest technologies.

Finally, providing a welcome respite from the excitement at the fair was New York’s Yoshii Gallery, which installed a sort of secret floating garden under the monumental Markthalle dome. The gallery surprised visitors by exhibiting Taizo Kuroda’s delicate white porcelain in a spectacular space that celebrated architect Tadao Ando, who had never before appeared at the fair, created for his friend. The setting is so pure and white it absorbs almost every sound and movement around it; water, stone, and porcelain bring absolute serenity. An Issey Miyake quote on the wall depicts the vision of the great master of rounded forms: “The whiteness found in nature is far more powerful than anything a human hand can produce.” The experience, like a moment of pure spirituality, functioned as an antidote to the surrounding rush, providing a white page where the fields of Art and Design perfectly converged.