Designer Turns Studio Apartment into 24 Rooms
Opulence Spatially Defined
Stefan Strumbel: Divine Intervention
By Veronica Christina
Threatened with demolition due to lack of attendance, the closure of the 100 yr-old, Mary, Help of Christians Church would have displaced hundreds of worshipers in the tiny German town of Goldscheuer. Enter Stefan Strumbel.
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Starck Naked – Inside the Designer’s Home
By Erin Feher
I love Philippe Starck, but I have to say I never thought much about his sex life. I mean, usually he’d cross my mind somewhere between “Who can I bribe to drive me to drive me to Daly City” and “Where the fuck are the Brita filters,” while wandering the aisles at Target. That is until I got a sneak peak into his home through the brilliant lens of The Selby. Now, I can’t stop thinking about Philippe Starck’s sex life. 
Firstly, his wife is a fox. Like in that brown hair, olive skin, big tits and easy smile way that Italian women who drink and eat and do god-knows-what-else with reckless abandon are (and her name is Jasmine, come on). Secondly, their house is filled with taxidermy, which is weird, but it hardly qualifies as the weirdest shit that takes up residence in there. That might be the wig collection, glass eyeballs or refrigerator filled entirely with cakes. 
But whatever the verdict is on that, it’s quite clear that the Starcks get it on and get it on good. And it probably involves good champagne, their amazing silver soaking tub, gourmet honey, their wig collection and a stuffed polar bear. Think on that next time you’re in Target.
Let’s Get Busy Here – Teeny Tiny Hotels
Traveling is awesome. Traveling to the world’s destination cities is even better. Traveling to awesome cities and having to dip into your child’s college fund for a hotel room you only sleep in, not so much. In an effort to save our cash and provide us with the oh-so-photographic novelty of touching all four sides of our hotel room at once, The Arch Group has designed Sleep Box. A mobile cube (2m (l) x 1.4m (w) x 2.3m (h)) made of wood and MDF, SleepBox was designed to “allow very efficient use of available space and, if necessary, a quick change of layout”, making it perfect for places where demand dictates need. The hostel-specific SleepBox features bunk beds, flip-out tables and sockets for computers or phone chargers and not much else.
These tiny cubicles are already gracing the airports and train stations of Europe allowing for a safe and cheap alternative to the big city hotels. They’ve become such a hit that Japanese government officials are in talks to provide all public train stations in Tokyo with a few – proving once again that size doesn’t matter.
Life in 182 Square Feet
By Ike Edeani of Task
Boeing engineer Steve Sauer spent 7 years turning his 182-square-foot basement condo in Seattle into a compact, hyper efficient, three-level loft.
What I really wanted was one place with exactly what I needed and wanted. Quality is more important than quantity for me, and extra space only a problem. I tend to like things in their place.
The space contains two beds, a bathroom with a shower, a soaking tub (set into the floor underneath the entrance doorway), a full kitchen with a dishwasher, dining table, storage for two bikes, and a TV lounge. Sort of a low-tech (and even smaller) version of Gary Chang’s Domestic Transformer in Hong Kong, this type of dwelling might become the norm as more and more people move to already crowded cities around the world.
Let’s Get Busy Here – Crosby Street Hotel
By Erin Feher
I am so over sleeping on couches. I don’t care how good the party is, how old the friends are or how cozy the cushions. I’ve spent more than enough nights sharing a three-foot-wide hunk of ultra-suede with a string of past crushes, clinging to the romantic notion of body heat as my bare feet poke out from beneath a cat-hair-covered throw.
So maybe it’s no surprise that I’ve grown into a serious hotel girl. And not just a king-sized bed and soaking tub kinda hotel girl—my hotels gotta make me squeal with design delight. No two rooms the same, bold wallpaper, custom light-fixtures, head-scratching art, perfectly curated vintage accessories….
My next trip is to NYC, and while the hotels may be pricey, the cost seems perfectly fair considering I don’t have a single friend who has managed to move-on-up to an apartment with a guest room (the ones whose own beds aren’t crammed between their sofa and their stove have made it big).
So I’m heading straight over to SoHo, where between Prince, Spring and Lafayette Streets I will find the Crosby Street Hotel. This is the first US property for Firmdale, a UK-based boutique hotel operator with six unbelievably stylish hotels in London. Headed by husband and wife Tim and Kit Kemp (adorable? Yes), wife Kit has quite an eye for design and outfits all the hotels herself.
The rooms, lobby, restaurant and bar are each decked out with details that will more than make up for all those nights of couch surfing.
For more design-to-die-for hotels around the globe, check out the brand new 2010 edition of The Design Hotels Book. Don’t leave home without it.