Is DesignArt dead?

Is it hype or here to stay? That’s the question at the core of the current DesignArt debate. But first let’s define the term itself. “DesignArt” is the name given to expressive – and often experimental - furniture and furnishings that blur the boundaries between art and design. Created as prototypes, one-offs, or produced in small limited edition runs (up to 12 pieces), the pieces are made, marketed and exhibited as if they were artworks. And, over the past few years, they’ve fetched increasingly vertiginous sums at auction.

Some see this specifically 21st century phenomenon as an artistic response to the high street’s homogeneity. They believe that DesignArt is a significant new movement in which established rules and conventional expectations are thrown to the wind. And they consider its collectors to be the contemporary equivalent of Arts & Crafts patrons.

Collectors, though, need knee-deep pockets. When a prototype of the Aqua Table, designed by architect Zaha Hadid, fetched $296,000 at a Phillips de Pury auction in New York in 2005 it set a record for a furniture design sold in the same year it was made. Or take the limited edition Lockheed Lounge. When this poetic chunk of curvy aluminium, originally created by Marc Newson in 1986, was sold at Christie’s in New York in 2007 it fetched $1.5m – the highest price ever paid for a piece of furniture by a living designer.

Nor are these “celebrity” designers alone in commanding sky-high sale-room prices. The roster of contemporary designers in the premier league include Ron Arad, Tom Dixon, Fernando and Humberto Campana and Matteo Bonetti closely followed by Alessandro Mendini, Ronan and Erwin Bouroullec, Hella Jongerius, Tord Boontje and Ross Lovegrove. Less well-known designers are entering the frame too. And such are the potential prizes in this feverish market that some now produce pieces specifically for collectors (as opposed to making things for home-owners looking for a well-designed chair or dining table).

This has given rise to howls of elitism from those who believe the auction houses have cultivated – even invented – DesignArt as a purely commercial proposition. Sceptics are asking when the bubble will burst as it appears to be doing in the contemporary art market. And there are other pitfalls for collectors who fail to do their research properly. Original editions of some pieces may still be available direct from the designer at a lower price than that achieved at auction. And unlike a contemporary painting – which is a unique one-of f – a prototype furniture design could be put into production at some point which may devalue the original to some degree.

So will the DesignArt market implode in 2009? In my view, probably yes. But there will always be a place in anyone’s home for significant pieces – designs with a distinct identity that are relevant to their moment in time and, above all, made with integrity rather than an eye to the main chance.