Boutique Design - November/December 2010 - 28

Q + A

Carlos Couturier

Architect Javier Sánchez and interior designer India Mahdavi mix bohemian cool and minimalist modernity in the CondeSAdf.

and atmosphere of these houses. They asked us, “Is there a hotel in Mexico City that has this same flair?” And, no, there was none! So we created the first one. Mexico was moving towards modernity. We felt we had to be part of this new energy.
Is it true that you couldn’t find backers?

Q+A: Carlos Couturier
BY MARY SCOvIAk

We had everything against us. There were no investors or financing available. We built our first property, Hotel Habita, with our own resources. It took us forever. We had the vision in 1993 and did not finish the hotel until the year 2000.
BD: How did the Latin American hotel community react?

exico City had never seen a happening millenial boutique hotel before Carlos Couturier and his partners, brothers Moisés and Rafael Micha, opened Hotel Habita in 2000. More than a dozen properties later, Grupo Habita has put Latin America on the lifestyle hotel map as a trendsetter. Through his choice of designers and design directions, Couturier forced world travelers to rethink their preconceptions about Mexico. Rafael Micha credits Couturier (Groupo Habita’s managing partner and creative director) as the “creative force” behind this much-emulated hotel company. Here, Couturier talks about history, heroes and his predictions for the next wave of boutique design.

BD: Did you set out to bring the boutique hotel concept to Mexico? Couturier: No. Moisés Micha and I started

investing in real estate. I’d spent a year in Florence before moving to Mexico City. There were so many beautiful old homes in the Polanco district (in the Mexican capital) that were being demolished. It was sad to see these houses torn down and replaced by standard architecture. We decided to save as many of them as possible. We bought the first house and turned it into my office. Then we bought more. Our office tenants came mainly from New York or Europe (the fine-art auction house Christie’s; The Wall Street Journal; the posh men’s retailer Ermenegildo Zegna; The Los Angeles Times).They loved the feel

I remember three days before the big opening of Habita, the general manager of the Four Seasons in Mexico City came to visit and said, “Wow! Congratulations. This will be either a big failure or a big success.” Luckily for us, the outcome was positive.
BD: What made Hotel Habita so different?

Mexico was one of the first countries in Latin America to get international recognition. We started delivering cool movies, artists and actors to the world scene. Our vision was to help make Mexico City a new global destination. We wanted to build an oasis in the city that would evoke the opposite of what the city was known for: pollution, chaos, insecurity, poverty. We built

Boutique Design | November+December 2010

Boutique Design - November/December 2010

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