Basic.Space Returns to Los Angeles With a $2 Million Paul Rudolph Showpiece
At the Pacific Design Center, the invite-only shopping event pairs the architect’s Walker Guest House with rare works and installations tailored for a new generation of collectors
Since acquiring Design Miami in 2023, Basic.Space has steadily reworked the fair’s format of gathering leading galleries and designer presentations under one roof. The fair has successfully moved beyond cavernous halls, staging well-received editions in more immersive settings such as the gilded L’Hôtel de Maisons in Paris to a string of lavish residences in the Hollywood Hills. In Los Angeles, the inaugural Design.Space furthered that evolution with a two-day takeover of the Pacific Design Center, which presented Jean Prouvé’s 1969 Sainte-Marie Gas Station as a focal point while visitors acquired works directly through Basic.Space’s app. A New York edition followed that fall, extending the concept with a similarly immersive retail-driven approach.
The shift proved astute. “We saw great success at least year’s Los Angeles and New York editions,” Jesse Lee, CEO of Basic.Space, tells Galerie. “They confirmed the appetite for curated experiences that bring together design, art, and fashion.” He adds that the company’s signature “IRL-to-URL” model resonates with younger collectors for its directness and ease: “Guests can see an object that grabs their interest in person and then open the Basic.Space app for more details and buy it immediately.”
That momentum carries into the second Los Angeles edition, which returns to the Pacific Design Center through Sunday, March 29. The invite-only event builds on the framework of earlier iterations while widening its scope with site-specific programming. Highlights include a monumental installation by Rick Owens presented by Carpenters Workshop Gallery, composed of sofa-like Glade Miami units in Batipan plywood wrapped in French wool army blankets. Gallerist and developer Rajan Bijlani is presenting original Chandigarh furnishings by Pierre Jeanneret dating from 1953 to 1966, each with verified provenance. James De Wulf brought a ping pong table made of tuned aluminum bell plates that emit resonant tones with each strike. Elsewhere, fashion purveyor ERL constructed a glass-enclosed suburban garage filled with antique tools and found objects that evoke a distinctly American vernacular.
The event’s centerpiece is the Walker Guest House (1951), a landmark of American modernism that became then-33-year-old Paul Rudolph’s first independent commission. Installed as a fully realized architectural system in the Pacific Design Center plaza and listed for sale at $2 million, the structure includes original furnishings and architectural plans. Its defining feature is a system of adjustable wooden panels, raised and lowered by 77-pound red cannonball counterweights. When closed, they act as shutters; when lifted, they extend into canopies that modulate light and air. Rudolph described the structure as “crouching like a spider in the sand”—a vivid reflection of its responsiveness to climate and use. The house was commissioned by Walter Walker, grandson of the lumber magnate behind the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
“Paul Rudolph was one of America’s most groundbreaking architects, and the Walker Guest House was among his most iconic designs,” Lee says, noting how this year’s programming channels that same iconoclastic spirit. He paired the house with A$AP Rocky’s design studio, HOMMEMADE, which curated the interiors. Inside, a tightly composed selection of covetable objects and furnishings reframes the house through a contemporary lens. A reflective piece by Maurizio Cattelan hovers above a pinched Raphael Raffel “croissant” sofa from the 1970s, set opposite an amoeba-shaped table by Willett and a plywood chair by Tom Sachs punctured with oversize apertures. Gaetano Pesce’s colorful resin luminaires cast saturated hues near bronze vessels by Kris Van Assche and Memphis Milano rarities by Ettore Sottsass. HOMMEMADE added a final gesture with a furry slipcover pulled over an original Gufram cactus.
This year’s edition centers on the tagline “Own the Future,” which Lee describes as a curatorial framework for gathering figures shaping what comes next across design, art, and fashion. The phrase also signals the frictionless path from discovery to acquisition that underpins the event, which Lee plans to extend further as the platform continues to grow. “We plan to take the shopping experience to other cities and expand our presence globally,” he says. Looking ahead, he adds, “Expect the unexpected in terms of collaborations and locations while holding us accountable in continuing to showcase the very best in design, art, and fashion.”