When Design Miami/Basel opens in Switzerland on June 16, a robust collectors’ lounge designed by architect Tom Kundig of the Seattle-based AD100 firm Olson Kundig will offer visitors a place to catch their breath. Dubbed Outpost Basel, the lounge will reflect the international nature of the event—even in its choice of materials. “We’re architects from the Northwest, the wood we’re using is from Romania, it’s being manufactured by a company in Austria, and one of the techniques we’re using is a Japanese process,” says Kundig. “We’re bringing all these things together in one place, because the people who come to Basel are from all over the world.”

The lounge contains two distinct spaces: a restaurant and a sitting area. The restaurant will be enclosed by a series of enormous crisscrossing wood panels normally used for forming concrete. The panels will arrive at the fair precut so “they can assembled like a great big wooden toy,” says Kundig. The resulting X-shaped pattern allows for integrated bench seating while also paying tribute to Design Miami/Basel’s tenth anniversary.

The sitting area’s walls will be created with wood blocks that have been given a shou sugi ban finish—an ancient Japanese technique for preserving wood by charring it. The arrangement of the blocks will be based on a pattern informed by the Fibonacci numbers.

Olson Kundig also devised the lounge for the Miami edition of the fair in December, which featured a structure made of reclaimed timber beams. “The theme of rethinking wood in all its possibilities,” says Kundig, “is following us to Basel.”

For more information visit basel2015.designmiamiom .

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