May 27, 2009

In the Eye of the Dome

If you have not been to the Mart’s south lobby lately, do yourself a favor and check it out. There you’ll find an incredible installation of Buckminster Fuller’s “Fly’s Eye Dome,” which was built for the Mart’s recent Artropolis exhibit (and to promote the Buckminster Fuller exhibit at the MCA. Made of 50 fiberglass sections, it’s 24 feet high, and weighs 3,500 pounds. Fuller, an architect and all-around visionary had originally conceived of this design as pre-fab affordable housing (the holes were for windows). So it’s appropriate that the Mart incarnation is filled with—and surrounded by—futuristic-looking furniture from the Vitra showroom, including the cool Vegetal chairs (whose design is inspired by the shape of a mature tree) and the funky high-backed Alcove sofas, both by French brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, shown above. The amazing green mass that hangs around the chandelier inside the dome is also from Vitra—called Algues, it’s actually a puzzle-like plastic room divider comprised of branches that can be assembled and molded into any shape or size. The dome and furniture will be on display through mid-June, coming down after the Mart’s major commercial furnishings show, NeoCon.

—Gina Bazer

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