Tokujin Yoshioka Brings Tornado to Design Miami

Tokujin Yoshioka has been recognized as Design Miami’s Designer of the Year for 2007. His project Tornado approaches the honor through a spatial installation, turning attention toward the atmosphere of a room as well as the objects that might occupy it.

Yoshioka’s account of the work identifies Miami’s natural environment as part of its inspiration. That connection gives the commission a relationship to its location without requiring a literal image of the city. A designer can respond to a place through light, movement or the sensation of being surrounded by a material.

At an event devoted to collectible design, such a project broadens what visitors are asked to consider. The significant work need not be a chair, cabinet or lamp that can be understood as an isolated object. Tornado makes the surrounding space part of the proposition. The award therefore introduces a designer through an experience, offering Miami’s art-week audience another way to look at design.