OMA's Faena Forum, an enigmatic cultural center, opens in Miami

Making the trip to Miami for this year’s Art Basel or Design Miami fairs? You’ll need to add a new building to your architectural itinerary: After two years under constructon, the OMA-designed, 50-000-square-foot Faena Forum is finally open, just in time for the art and design world’s descent on the city.

The arts and culture incubator—named for Argentinian-born developer Alan Faena, who led the project along with fellow developer Len Blavatknik—is the lynchpin of the city’s brand-new Faena District, which includes, naturally, condominiums, as well as a hotel (a renovation of the circa-1930s Atlantic Beach Hotel), retail, and a park.

Comprising a trio of geometric buildings with white-concrete facades—one for performances, one for retail and office space, and another for...even more retail (plus newfangled automated parking)—the District adds to the southern city’s ever-deepening roster of projects by high-profile architects, which now includes work by Zaha Hadid, Bjarke Ingels, Herzog and de Meuron, and more.

Read an interview with OMA partner and project design lead Shohei Shigematsu, and see a few more photos, over at Designboom.

Gif via OMA

Photo by Iwan Baan via OMA