If you were at Design Miami this past weekend and came across a staggeringly large pile of rocks in the Northwest quadrant, you’d be forgiven for wondering what mythological timescape you’d stumbled into.

Daniel Arsham’s Stone Flow installation at Design Miami: Water moving through organic forms

The pile of blue and white rubble is neither from the set of the kitschy classic TV show “Land of the Lost,” nor from the oeuvre of Harry Nilsson, who created the exceptionally imaginative The Point, but rather from the mind and the craft of artist and designer Daniel Arsham, who collaborated with Kohler on this exhibit (entitled “Stone Flow”) and on Rock.01, a visionary 3D-modeled vitreous china sink.

Rock.01 at Design Miami. Image from Matterport Virtual Reality

The display may also remind you of the singular aesthetic of Play-Doh—neither is that a coincidence, as Arsham mentions that the look was in part inspired by his children’s inventive creations, refined during the interminable hours of the pandemic.

But if the stones of Stone Flow are self-consciously imaginative, the rock of Rock.01 dials in on reality.

The new sink is an intricate recapitulation of a natural phenomena, faithfully capturing the look of a river, the rhythmic flow of water having polished the stones beneath to a perfectly faceted sheen.

The key here is Kohler’s 3D-printed ceramic technology, which enables consistent reproduction of such an amorphous, sculpted form.

Regarding the rock that Rock.01 rests on, it’s constructed with the old-school technique of brass casting, before it’s subject to a complex vapor patina chamber process to achieve the weathered look.

The juxtaposition of the old and the new, the fantastical/imaginative and the faithfully reproduced make for a synergy that Arsham relishes: “the two products that sit opposing are new technology and really old technology… I’m always trying to link the future and the past and sort of blend time.”

Design Miami wrapped up over the weekend but Kohler’s Rock.01 will soon be available to the public. There’s little time to spare, however, as this is a limited edition release of just 99, which will drop, as they say, beginning December 10, Noon EST. Find out more at Kohler and Daniel Arsham.