Boutique Design - March/April 2009 - (Page 16)

IN PROFILE “ To Be is BY KELLY HUSHIN to Build” total redesign to the mega-franchise, Super 8. There’s a bit of a back story there. He tells us about it: Karim Rashid’s Philosophy to Live By N o, he cannot take credit for the quote. It was distinguished German philosopher Martin Heidegger who coined the phrase. But the adage “to be is to build” obviously made quite an impression on contemporary space and product designer, Karim Rashid, as it is the message you get on his cell phone’s voicemail right before the beep. Karim lives by lots of philosophies — some of which he lives to reject. “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” is one of his least favorite, and it’s an idea he says runs rampant in American culture. Instead, Karim thrives on the idea that design is meant for everyone to live in and experience. It is a part of our daily lives, whether we are designers, manufacturers or bus drivers. One of his most recent projects, the Prizeotel, is a budget (think 59 Euros a night) hotel in Bremen which opened on Valentine’s Day. Karim described this as a dream project. “For the last twenty years I’ve been interested in making design reach a broader audience and I’ve always been frustrated personally and objectively about how design relegates itself to the elite,” he says. Yearning to bring high design to the masses, Karim went so far as to pitch a “I have a funny story. I was driving to Toronto from New York and I thought it’d be a fun road trip. At about midnight I stopped in a Super 8. It was amazing on the one hand because you had all these things like free wireless, free breakfast (granted the breakfast wasn’t the greatest, but it was free). But the actual space and the feeling was frightening. And shocking. It sort of waved up and down and I went in the room and there was this fake Tiffany lamp that was broken and everything was horrific. The next morning when I checked out, I filled out my e-mail address and spent 15 minutes filling out their survey. I usually don’t do those, but I filled this out and at the bottom said, ‘Actually, the whole Super 8 franchise needs to be redesigned. I’ll design it. Here’s my e-mail. Check out my website.’ Well, someone took that seriously and in two weeks I had the whole top team of Super 8 in my office.” Unfortunately, after all that, the “if it’s not broken don’t fix it” motto set in for the Super 8 team and ultimately outweighed the design potential he brought to the table. But stories like this only reinforce Karim’s passion for design and strengthen his ability to create and reinvent as he did with the interiors in new spaces like the World Lounge in Istanbul or the myhotel in Brighton, England. He continuously does this with both sustainability and economic sensibility in mind. “When I look at the issue of green, I look at it as ‘to dematerialize,’ that’s the number one agenda,” he says. In our modern culture we can have just as much or more than we desire, but with fewer material goods, Karim thinks. “The first thing to consider is that to make something less expen- 16 • boutique DESIGN march/april 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Boutique Design - March/April 2009

Boutique Design - March/April 2009
Contents
Boutique Buzz
Marie Coleman, USGBC Communications Coordinator, on Green Building in Today’s Economy
Designer/ Philosopher Karim Rashid - In Profile
Business Sense: Social Networking for the Design Community
How the Merging Worlds of Eco-Consciousness and Wellness Affect Design
Looney & Associates Creates a Sustainable, One of a Kind Mountain Chic Hotel
Leading Hotel Companies, Including Kimpton, IHG, Wyndham and Best Western Talk Green
Antonio Di Oronzo, Bluarch Architecture + Interiors, on the Firm’s Sustainable Portfolio, Including Greenhouse, a LEED Certified Nightclub
How Art is Re-Shaping Hotel Design
PowerStrip Studio Designs Hutton Hotel, Nashville’s First Green Luxury Boutique
Shopping the Market: 12 Pages of Green Textiles, Bedding, Bath, Furniture, Wallcovering, Surfaces, Flooring, Lighting and Seating
Wanda Jankowski Shares Planet-Saving Bath Options
Calendar/Advertisers Index

Boutique Design - March/April 2009