Michael Hammers

It simply started with a call

Nadja Swarovski asked Michael to face Ross, who reminisces “…my Swarowski project was grand audacious and ambitious and it needed to be pure and ethereal to diffuse the weight of the crystal into light and lightness…”. Michael managed to meet Ross Lovegrove at his London studio. It was early December 2007 and Michael was already delayed from other meetings and in a hurry to catch his flight back to Cologne: “I had a meeting with one of the top ten industrial designers of the world and I heard myself saying: 'Hey, I am really sorry but can we just get straight to the point? Just tell me your design vision, ask your questions and you’ll get my answers frankly and right away. I have to leave in half an hour’? and I know I was thinking 'shiiiiii…’?”. But Ross Lovegrove was able to appreciate that and he didn’t have much time either. That’s how these two started collaboration on Liquid Space sharing one dream. Michael later on offered Ross all his experience and personal dedication to his artistic vision and promised to create one of the most outstanding Swarovski Crystal Palace installations. And Ross gave Michael nothing less than the freedom to go for it.

Liquid Space seems to melt through the ceiling

Today Ross Lovegrove states “Technical ability is one thing but the intuition to translate and enhance projects is his [Michael’s] true gift. The resulting project as shown at Design Miami was beyond expectation, even for me… you know it’s rare these days to find such dedication… without time limits or overcoming problems that a simple beer and a cigarette late at night cannot solve.”

Liquid Space consists of 250,000 Swarovski crystals. It melts through the ceiling cascading down through a set of four tables, milled from solid blocks of aluminium.

The chandelier is lit by a three customized, remote controlled RGB-LED lighting systems and has an automated lifting to rise the bottom part to liberate space. The overall project realisation and management, engineering and fabrication plus the installation in Miami was done by Michael Hammers’ Studios who also created an especially customized packing system, allowing worldwide cargo-shipment and a smooth and fast installation flow.