Commission
Design Miami/ 2013
Each December, Design Miami/ commissions early-career architects to build a designed environment for the fair’s entrance as part of its biannual Design Commissions program.
Harnessing multiple, often unexpected, properties of sand and aluminum, Formlessfinder’s Tent Pile pavilion provides shade, seating, cool air and a space to play for the city’s public. The pavilion appears as a dramatic aluminum roof miraculously balanced on the apex of a great pyramid of loose sand. Milled aluminum benches give resting space in the shade, where visitors will be fanned by the cool air naturally generated by the structure.
Formlessfinder describes itself as a ‘formless’ architectural practice – a studio where an expanded range of ideas, material considerations, construction techniques and user interactions all take priority over the shape of the final building. Co-founded in 2010 by Julian Rose and Garrett Ricciardi, Formlessfinder refer to their practice as a “finder” because it has a multifaceted output, which includes research projects and a forthcoming book. But while the theoretical aspect is important to its work, Formlessfinder still has the creation of physical structures at its heart.