Deutsche Bank Lounge by Karim Rashid

DESIGN.ws November 1 – 5, 2006

Art Cologne

Deutsche Bank Art and Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management presented at Germany’s most important art fair a VIP Lounge designed by Karim Rashid and a presentation of a selection of works from the Deutsche Bank Collection.

In the anniversary year of the fair – which is taking place for the 40th time this year – the bank is presenting itself with an exclusive VIP Lounge in the Rheinhallen. Karim’s digipop sensuous design serves as a communication forum for the bank’s many clients and discussion events.

Karim says, “The world is becoming very visually savvy and info-savvy. The energy and times are hypertrophic. Consumers are perpetually interested in being stimulated, in being excited about their physical environment. It is the residue of the digital age. If the art world is so flexible, so personalized, so complex and so aesthetic, why not the physical world ?” With that Karim combines digitally designed patterns, bright colors and lounge comfort to create a seamless ambience that offers unusual perspectives and point of view. Visitors of the Deutsche Bank lounge will find themselves in a sequence of silver-white, pink, and blue rooms steeped in an ambience of illuminated floors and organically flowing walls. Large digital patterns become the space itself, as walking through a large graphic art piece. “Ornamentation is a modus operandi for communication, for providing dimension, texture, pattern, depth and spirit. It is a way to liven up spaces, to create complementary conditions move your eye and break the surface, to bring illusion or entropy, to embellish and add richness to surfaces and material and objects. Today it can add emotion and meaning to the flat world that modernism has shaped.” – Karim Rashid.

The exterior custom print wallpaper created by Karim Rashid becomes a large artwork, blurring borderlines of design, art and architecture. The influence of these fields on each other is strongly visible, creating one strong memorable experience.

Visitors enter the main area of the lounge through reflections and refractions of color, light and pattern. The white gallery space greets all. Karim designed the monochromatic color palette and the curved walls and ceiling in this space emphasize the presence of the colorful artwork. Walking through the space visitors can go to either of the side rooms where many of Karim’s famed designs from Bonaldo, Casamania, Label and Magis are on display. The backlit floor provides an intimate atmosphere. All rooms are separated by a glowing border of fluorescent color to create a visual distinction between the individual spaces

In harmony with Rashid’s lounge concept in Cologne, Deutsche Bank is presenting the series of Wintergarden prints by Marc Quinn. The English artist’s deliberately artificial-seeming photographs of plants form a visual counterpart to the digital nature interior design. Nature’s perfection is one of Quinn’s key themes, as his latest works show, for instance the Flower sculptures cast in silicon.

Project Info
Total Area 270 square meters
Materials
Exterior
Custom print film for walls, Deutsche Bank Pattern
2 way mirror element with floating fluorescent pink lacquer desk
Gallery Space
Custom print film for walls and floor, Vekto pattern
White Paint
Chrome Metal Sheet (behind artwork), backlit with white LED lights
Bar area / Meeting area (side rooms)
Custom print film for walls, Nova and Voxel patterns Backlit acrylic floor
Furniture
Bonaldo Flap table, designed by Karim Rashid
Bonaldo Pierre Sofa, designed by Glenn Thomas
Bonaldo Planet Light table, designed by Gino Carollo
Bonaldo Cube & Navy ottomans, designed by Kaori Shiina
Casamania Kant Stool, designed by Karim Rashid
Label Kite Chair & ottoman, designed by Karim Rashid
Magis Butterfly Chair, designed by Karim Rashid