Corning’s GlassLab will give designers free range to improvise with glass at German design museum

Timed to overlap with Art Basel taking place just four miles across the border from Weil am Rhein, Germany, the Vitra Design Museum will play host to the Corning Museum of Glass’s GlassLab from June 14th to June 20th. GlassLab is a portable, energy-efficient and green hot shop where designers work with a team of experienced glassblowers to bring their sketches to life in front of an audience. Not only does GlassLab provide audiences interested in product design a look into the process of prototyping and refining glass objects, but designers themselves get a chance to work with glass in real time and in real life. This is far different than the virtual world where most design takes place through computer programs. Here, rather than a prototype arriving by mail from an Asian factory weeks later, a harsh reality of our increasingly global design and manufacturing process, designers will have a chance to see first-hand how glass designs intersect with the realities of the hotshop, and modify their plans accordingly.

GlassLab will be offering its glassblowing expertise to a diverse group of international designers, including Czech architects and designers Michal Fron?k & Jan N?me?ek; a Swiss design trio known for elegant simplicity known as Atelier Oi; Netherlands-based Nacho Carbonell, a designer and installation artist working with everyday objects brought to life; American design legend Wendell Castle, who creates bold and graceful pieces in mediums ranging from wood to glass; American David Wiseman, who brings into harmony design, nature and art; Tomas Libertiny, who creates many of pieces using live bees, successfully combining raw nature with the world of design and art; Swedish design group Studio Sigga Heimis, and American artist and designer Jeff Zimmerman. Also designing in front of the audience will be American Paul Haigh of Haigh Architects who is also a consultant for GlassLab and a coordinator of the summer design program at Domaine de Boisbuchet that borrows the GlassLab equipment for its courses.

—Apeksha Vanjari