Local gallery Verso has exhibited one-off and limited edition designs by 23 designers in various rooms of a newly built Brooklyn condominium building during NYCxDesign 2024.
Called Verso&Friends, the showcase included a wide variety of designs including furniture, lighting, home accessories, textiles, and semi-functional sculptures, spread throughout the three condominiums in the structure.
Exhibitors included a number of local designers such as Hannah Bigeleisen, who exhibited a number of pieces inside and in the covered garage area such as a long bench coated with gypsum cement and painted a deep blue.
Bowen Liu showcased a long coffee table with pyramidal legs made from solid cast glass, placed next to a wooded chair with a mango leather seat.
In one of the condo's kitchens, Oregon designer Alex Proba suspended a chandelier of colourful rock-like forms with a glass piece created by artist Robbie Frankle.
Brooklyn studio Office of Tangible Space presented a number of works including the OTS Chair, made in collaboration with newly established manufacturer Pern Baan.
The chair has a curved form and has woven seating made using Thai craft practices.
"[The product] highlights Thailand's broad spectrum of craft possibilities, from high-tech metal manufacturing to meticulously hand-woven seating in a variety of fibers," said Verso.
Also based in New York, designer Steven Bukowski presented new works from his Bubble and Doric Series, which included tables and chairs with bundled cylindrical legs.
Marcus de Paula exhibited the Glacier light sculpture for his Boreas collection, which featured neon tubes wrapped around imperfections in stone.
Meanwhile, Canadian designer Zoë Mowat, who now works in Brooklyn, showcased a modular shelving unit held in place by magnets.
Evam, a studio run by Brooklyn-based fabricator and designer Caroline Kable and Udaipur, India-based talent Aditya Jamini showcased furniture pieces like the Akar Chair and Y-Table.
"We're trying to showcase local Rajasthani craft with contemporary forms which are reflective of our two backgrounds," Kable said.
Brooklyn studio Gestu showcased furniture with metal legs wrapped with ceramic rings.
Textile design studio Laine + Alliage showcased new window drapes and upholstery fabrics from her Dénudé collection.
The works were displayed throughout living rooms, bedrooms, and bathrooms in the Red Hook, Brooklyn condo's three full-floor residences, as well as in its backyard and carport.
According to Verso, this context is a unique backdrop for the various eclectic designs that interplay well with the equally unconventional architecture.
"96 King is a new building, designed to try to weave together the neighbourhood's historic architecture and its roots and connection to the sea," said Ground Studio & Workshop principal Eli Fernald.
"It also aims to address and acknowledge the challenges of Red Hook's location in the floodplain in subtle ways, and assert through its structural language that it was made in the present era."
Like with most of his other projects, Fernald also served as the developer and general contractor.
The architecture is centred around the use of materials such as beeswax-finished structural concrete, green Fior de Bosco marble, and terracotta tiles.
"Materials draw their inspiration from the turbid green bay, from the neighbourhood's exterior of brick and wood, and from the understated grace of 19th-century utilitarian buildings," said the studio.
The three-bedroom, 2.5-bath units at 96 King cover 2,450 square feet (41.8 square metres) of space and have balconies with views of the Downtown Brooklyn skyline.
At its Tribeca flagship space during NYCxDesign week 2024, Verso also debuted its retail collaboration with Italian furniture producer Arflex and showcased Gregory Beson's Dark Bench capsule collection.
The gallery has previously presented pop-up group exhibitions in Milan, Miami, Aspen, and Bridgehampton, New York.
"We were born as an agile and itinerant gallery and store, capable of occupying both unassuming and groundbreaking real estate spaces while curating thoughtful exhibitions around them," said Verso founder and principal Amauri Aguiar.
"We have also been cultivating a strong community of creatives from all over the world."
Other exhibitions during New York's annual design week included a group show of works made by a majority of LGBTQ+ designers.
The photography is by Jonathan Hokklo.
VERSO&FRIENDS will be on view from 16 to 26 May and New York's design festival 2024 takes place throughout the city from 16 to 23 May. See the NYCxDesign 2024 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.