World of Architecture and Design: Karim Rashid Designs NHow Hotel in Berlin

Image Courtesy of NHow Berlin

The NHow Berlin is an extension of the NH Hotels, a hospitality group mostly aimed at business travelers known for its quality service and their ability to immerse all properties into their surrounding communities with a great attention to detail and a knack for sustainability; ''Unconventional, life- affirmative, constantly in movement, locally rooted while at home anywhere in the world – an idea, in other words, corresponding to lifestyle of the new creative class.'' Design, art and music are the main features of the NHow.

Image Courtesy of NHow Berlin

German architect Sergei Tchoban and Egyptian designer Karim Rashid worked together to surmount the task at hand, to marry the industrial style of local Berlin architecture with an unexpected and hip twist. The building would have to look contemporary, an introduction to the playful pop design inside, a way to showcase cheery bold colors while maintaining the edginess that gives this area of Berlin its ‘street cred’.

Image Courtesy of NHow Berlin

Image Courtesy of NHow Berlin

When one walks into the door you are enveloped by the imagination of Karim Rashid , a designer who has gained many accolades and awards for his work (which has been exhibited in museums across the globe including the Moma and the Centre Georges Pomipdou). Like a world straight out of his dreams, the bright colors and balloon shaped furniture are intoxicating… they are a wonderland for the creative traveler who may be looking for inspiration in their travels.

Image Courtesy of NHow Berlin

Karim Rashid was responsible for the interiors and the furniture design of the 304 rooms and suites of the hotel (233 standard rooms, 25 VIP class rooms, 45 junior suites and the NHow Suite) - furniture that was custom made for this exact hotel. Guests of the hotel can choose pink, blue, or grey rooms (all with floors to match). The aesthetic is referred to as ''digi-pop design'' in the hotel’s press literature and can best be described as a visual funhouse; liquid-like plastic, colorful lighting, bold colors everywhere, furniture that looks like it was puffed up, stretched out, and carved out of Play-doh… different shapes and sizes, a psychedelic treat throughout the hotel. The architect wanted to create a place you had never quite seen before, one that you couldn’t compare to prior experiences or spaces.

Image Courtesy of NHow Berlin

Rashid’s vision was intended by him to be a radical design movement, ''…calling for a break with old ways of looking and living, and the creation of a world free from nostalgia'': ''My vision engages technology, visuals, textures, colour, as well as all the needs that are intrinsic to living in a simpler less cluttered but more sensual environment. Design touches us on every level, and design can continue to define and shape our dimensional interior environments and create new progressive human behaviors, and new languages. I always question whether the physical world is as experiential, as seductive, as connective, as inspiring, as personalizable, and customizable as the digital world.'' Rashid goes on to discuss some of the objects and new vocabulary he has developed along with the designs that were realized for the hotel, words and terms like ‘Infosthetic”, ‘blobject’, and ‘technorganic’. The designer truly approached this project with a desire for utter originality every step of the way, his vision was about all to bring something striking and creative to the city of Berlin. His very own world.