Flotsam & Jetsam

Project Details

Project Description

FROM THE ARCHITECTS:

SHoP’s work will be celebrated through an original design by the firm, which will serve as a public plaza at the entrance to this year’s Design Miami/ fair in December. Titled Flotsam & Jetsam, the installation seeks to make visible two qualities—one evident, one latent—in the understanding of the city today. It exists at the intersection of Miami's celebrated spirit of play, represented by a relocated landscape that mimics the beach, but also the city's emergent function as a center for creative visioning and technological discovery.
To help realize Flotsam & Jetsam, SHoP brought in Branch Technology, a Chattanooga-based fabrication firm that is working to bring 3D printing out of the realm of prototyping and table-top production and into broader use as a full-scale, practical means of construction.

A second additive manufacturing technology system, located within DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is capable of printing components up to 20 x 8 x 6 feet using more than 40 polymer and bio-derived composites. Elements of the installation will be printed on this large-scale system using bamboo composite material, enabling a reliable, natural alternative and opening doors into next-generation sustainable practices in manufacturing.

In order to optimize an exploration of the possibilities of the print medium, and to create instruction sets suitable for communicating clearly with the production team, SHoP leveraged a longstanding partnership with Dassault Systèmes, an international leader in developing creative design and project management systems optimized for 3D production and direct-to-fabrication methodologies.

Structural engineering partners on the project are Thornton Tomasetti.

Taken together, the installation by SHoP presents in microcosm a method of thinking and making that holds the potential to revolutionize the expressive potential of new technologies in real-world conditions. By evoking a specifically Miami sense of seaside glamor in an environment realized through progressive creative methods, Flotsam & Jetsam seeks to be both a celebration of the city as it has long existed in the popular imagination, and an evocation of what it can become.

“SHoP represents exactly what the Panerai Design Miami/ Visionary Award is meant to recognize: innovation, inspiration and an outstanding point-of-view,” says Rodman Primack, Chief Creative Officer, Design Miami/. “For the first time, we will be installing the commission long-term in the Miami Design District and I cannot think of a better practice to conceive this installation. We are thrilled with the pavilion design and delighted to honor SHoP for the 12th edition of Design Miami.”

After Design Miami/, Flotsam and Jetsam will be reinstalled in the Miami Design District’s iconic Jungle Plaza to house an outdoor cultural event space for long-term public enjoyment. The space will be launched with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) in Spring/Summer 2017 alongside a signature community program for bringing world-class public sculpture to the city. This new annual public program, based in and extending beyond Jungle Plaza will see ICA Miami curate annual sculpture installations by some of the leading artists of our time. This partnership with MDD advances the museum's mission to provide a free and open cultural resource for local and international communities. The public sculpture initiative will be further enlivened by a program of talks, performances and cocktail events under the shade of SHoP’s spirited pavilions.