LAB #3(42) 2008

who was «accessible», who was attracted to their ambition of offering an alternative to top-of- the-range hotel accommodation available today. Matali’s aspirations were in line with theirs. Patrick and Philippe found the ideal spot: it was a 1930s building which had once been a boarding house. The simple and pure lines of the fa c ade provided an ideal starting point for a totally contemporary project. The plan was developed over a period of months: Matali submitted proposals; ideas bounced back and forth, stimulated and ex- panded in the exchange, and developed into autonomous concepts. There are some grand hotels which attempt to give the impression that guests are at home, while others opt for the atmosphere of the guest invited into someone else’s home. HI offers an experience – an experience of contemporary living. A hotel is the perfect place for seeing and giving different views on any and every form of contemporary culture. And it is obvious that a short-term stay away from home is a great moment for experimenting. HI takes guests on a voyage of discovery, leaving each individual free to embrace the different universes pre- sented. It is a place for action. Everyone is a player. The concept is diametri- cally opposed to the idea of areas dominated by interior decoration, where each article has its place, serving a single purpose; the areas and objects in the HI environment are rational, mak- ing smart contributions, offering us services, hints and assistance, which means we are free to act, and this is a whole new ball game. If we are not prisoners of the decor, trapped in the status associated with it, we do not have to play the usual role we play in a luxury hotel. HI is an infrastructure offering a whole host of stimuli, a range of life experiences. And what has that produced? There are, for example, nine concepts for the rooms, designed not as variations on an aesthetic theme, but based on hypotheses for different forms of spatial organi- zation: nine ways of living in a given area. You have cooperated with Russian students, you taught «the art of turning horse into art», which was supported by Hermes. What impression has this experience left? It was very interesting. I ‘ve asked the students How does your individual style correlate to the style of the company that you design furniture or interior for? Do you have to veer your views, to compromise? I don’t design the projects for my self but in a context and for a company. So it’s always partnership and a long process. What do you work on at the moment? to do a very personal project. Tell about trend’s of Milan 2008? I don’t know about trends.

What also encourages me is that Jim creates the opportunity for different uses and that its owner can entirely make it his own. Jim creates very strong emotional ties… Some use the bed base as a screen or as a spare bed, but also as a playspace for children. It is of course used in private homes, but also in public places like hotels. I remember the excite- ment of a Dominican monk who fancied putting Jims in all the brother’s cells in order to free their minds…. A Belgian client bought 5 Jims to make her house in the country into a giant dormitory where she would invite all her friends… I even know someone who arranged a specific space around Jim in his new apartment… I love all of Jim’s lives and I love that they escape me. Contemporary designers are enthusiastic about ecology. You have many projects dedicated to this subject, such as V é g é table Restaurant, Phytolab, Green teleportation, Drops, Pigeon House. Do you do this to support the general attitude or do you believe that design can change the world? About ecology and in general about design the designer is a link in a chain, an important link but just a link. When I was working at Thomson multimedia, we try to introduce natural organic paintings for the TV sets but nobody of the subcontractors of Thomson could provide the paintings at that time. It could be possible now 10 years after. I am interested in organic and ecology, I can do it for my self very easily but the industrial process didn’t follow the same rule. An ecological position could also for example to refuse to draw a chair or several chairs each year. I trust in long term projects. That’s why I prefer to work in several areas and not be a specialist in a specific area. I first choose the projects through the people I met. In some hotels one feels himself at home, in other ones you feel as if you were on a visit; in Hi-Hotel in Nice one feels as if he were in an elite asylum. The thing will turn into what you want it to be! This is the example of the hotel interior radically reconsidered. Have you stayed in this hotel for leisure? Which feelings has it arisen in you as a guest? Which unexpected words have you heard about Hi-Hotel project? What is the gist of its concept? HI is a new concept in top of the range hotel accommodation, breaking away from tradi- tional standards of luxury. Philippe Chapelet and Patrick Elouarghi came up with the idea of HI. HI would be urban, innovative, and daring. They chose the city of Nice, at the crossroads of international travel and with idyllic weather. Next came the search for a designer and it was not long before they were drawn to the work of Matali Crasset. «She is different, off beat, and had come up with ideas for non-decorative furniture, with the focus on functional use and experimentation.» They discovered a person