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Architecture&Design

yasminemhmoudieh | London

YASMINE MAHMOUDIEH

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Her unique holistic approach to design, which m e rge s fro m h u m a n psychology and cuttinge d ge te c h n o l ogy, h a s resulted in an acclaimed international show-case of award-winning, one-of-akind projects.

Yasmine is a distinguished member of HoteliersGuild’s LeadingHôtelières Chapter

YasmineMahmoudieh Yasmine studied art history in Florence, architecture at the l’école d’Ingénieurs de Genève in Switzerland, interior design at the college of Notre Dame in San Francisco and architecture and interior design at UCLA in Los Angeles. A year after she graduated from UCLA (aged 26) she opened her first studio in Los Angeles, and today has her headquarters in London. Her work can be found across Europe, the United States ,into the Middle East and Asia, and even in the skies above, working as one of the few chosen de-signers to work on the Airbus A380.

Yasmine has been rewarded many times for her creative and innovative designs and is a reference in her field. Her multiple talents and skills helped her throughout her entire career in order to live her passion for architecture, design and entrepreneurship.

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e n iasm

come from music, movies, theatre, art, poetry, philosophy and from heaving had the fortune to have travelled since earliest age with my parents to many countries and continents. I also get a lot of inspirations when in nature and I adore trees, flowers, plants and beautiful landscapes.

yasminemahmoudieh

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MY INSPIRATIONS

Yet Another Dream is to realise my own hotel brand the Y? Hotel is not just a dream but a project I am following up intensely at the moment. Through my longtine experience and my strong intuition I do know what people want or what could excite them that they have not seen yet. I can anticipate a lot of things and my most successful projects are those where I had a lot of freedom in developing not only the design but also the concept‌

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HoteliersGuild: What’s the most interesting

thing about you that we won't learn from this interview?

YasmineMahmoudieh: I was taking 2 years acting classes in Los Angeles, while studying at UCLA and was promoted by my professor to act in his theatre in Hollywood. I was almost changing my studies, but then realised that acting was a very difficult place to be and so much dependent on the mercy of producers.

However I believe that it helped me in giving lectures all over the world , including Shanghai in front of 1000 people or teaching in various hotel and architecture schools around the world.

Three words that describe you?

Passionate, resilient, creative!

and hear the songs of birds and the wind or water or even snow flakes. I was a few years ago in the treehotel in Sweden with my family. That was pure luxury sleeping like a bird in the tress.

It is a concept that I wanted to develop myself for some time. A tree-hotel in a beautiful forest.

To me it is about soft materials that are pleasant to feel and touch and furniture that makes me relax and spaces that make me recharge my batteries. I appreciate a lot of natural lighting coming into buildings and melting with outdoor and open air areas.

Who is your guru?

I do not have a guru. I get inspirations form all kinds of influences in life itself. I have had a great mentor from UCLA, my former Italian professor who was the head of the design department and became my mentor and friend for life.. He taught me to never do something different if it it not better and many other things. He was a philosopher of design and architecture , mainly teaching you how to think.

Q&A

Where do you get your inspirations?

From everywhere. From music, movies, theatre, art, poetry, philosophy and from heaving had the fortune to have travelled since earliest age with my parents to many countries and continents. I also get a lot of inspirations when in nature and I adore trees, flowers, plants and beautiful landscapes.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

Each day is different .There are constantly new challenges, but also new ideas to implement. It is never monotonous. There is no routine and I love working in different countries and diving into local cultures and getting to know countries through my work rather an being a tourist.

What have you done recently for the first time?

Teaching 30 students from the Institut Paul Bocuse on zoom.

Your definition of SUSTAINABLE LUXURY, personal and architecture & design?

For me it is being in nature, being surrounded by beauty and sustainable materials. An aesthetic quality of architecture and interior design is very important to me. Lighting is so important and needs to address feelings . We need shadow and light to have an interesting juxtaposition.

I like fireplaces and indirect lighting that punctuates the beauty of materials and colours and architectural details. To me luxury is also authenticity . I do not like artificial materials. I like space and fresh air and beautiful surroundings . I like to smell flowers and sauces

What do you enjoy the least?

Dealing with unreliable people be it construction companies, consultants etc, a lot of what we do depends also on other people that we cannot always control and that can be frustrating at times.

What is your personal indulgence?

I am a very curious person and there are so many places in the world I still want to see and also there are many adventure travels I would like to take from visiting the gorillas in Africa to an expedition in the Antarctic, ‌‌..and many more.

I love meting creatives form other areas as music, film, art, sound, scent, and to be a long life learner as I believe tha tone life time is much to short to go after all my passions and ideas in life.

If you had one wish for yet another dream hospitality project - what would it be & why & where?

Realising my own hotel brand the Y? Hotel is not just a dream but a project I am following up

i nte n s e ly at t he mo me nt .

Through my longtine experience and my strong intuition I do know what people want or what could excite them that they have not seen yet. I can anticipate a lot of things and my most successful projects are those where I had a lot of freedom in developing not only the design but also the concept. I do believe that a country hotel concept that is outside metropolitan cities that has a m az i n g cu lt u ra l eve nt s t h r o u g h o u t t h e ye a r a n d cottages that you can buy and which are rented out to the hotel

interiors of buildings that can help preserving our environment and also recycling of materials can be much more used. We need to make sure that the carbon footprint is as little as possible and there are more opposition to do that today than hoteliers who are willing to a p p l y t h e m , We n e e d a paradigm shift and also understand that long-term success will depend on the implementation of sustainability rather thank talking about it only.

mixed use projects where we can develop more horizontal cities outside bit centres we will lift the constraint to cities and all the problems they create including pollution. We need inventive developers who are ready to innovate together in teams with creatives and offer new living solutions . It is in one way an exiting time as change is something good form my point of view.

Difficult times as right now offer a window of opportunities and are messengers to us that we need to redirect our values and lives in order to be sustainable ourselves in the world we live in.

can be spreading across many countries and even continents. I like to start in Europe but there is no limit to any country as being in nature is a need everywhere and I b elieve accelerated through the pandemic. What in your opinion is the most pressing sustainability issue facing the hospitality industry today?There are many. We need to apply much more sustainable building processes and use of materials than in the past. It is not enough to conserve water and energy.

There are many exiting new materials for the exterior and

it only.

age of 26 after graduating from UCLA and having work and lived in many countries but also having been the first ever professor at a hotel school ( EHL in Lausanne) to have taught architecture and design concepts to hotel students and being recognised for many projects through International awards.

will depend on the implementation of sustainability rather thank talking about

Where do you see the biggest challenges in terms hotel concepts & destinations for the post-Covid period?

City hotels have to be thought out in a new way. Sanitary issues have to be addressed and touch less points will be a new standard. I believe that any crisis is like Darwinism. The good projects will be separated form the bad ones. I think that developers and investors need creative architects and designers to lead t h e w ay i n t o a m o r e c r e a t i v e , constructions future any also addressing human needs more. Hotels could be again places to work to ‘live’ for longer periods . Many remote locations have the chance to be seen to be sought after as the problems of dense cities is causing a flight to nature. If hotels can be part of

Your greatest professional achievement so far?

Having followed my dream all of my life, having created my now company at the

What are the dominating sustainable materials you use and future trends?

We have some many that I cn only name a few. I love to use the ceramic floor slabs that clean the air and are anti odour and anti bacterial from an Italian company or the apple and rhubarb later but also the banana veneer and the carbon fibre material for outside facades that conserves heat and through light diodes let the facade shine at night.

Describe your KidsClub project & why’s it so close to your heart?

Mykidsy playground derived form my tech company www.mykidsy.com which is an online marketplace to book the most edcuaiotnal and meaningful on and off line activities for children. My goal sit to turn mykidsy into a global tech company as all over the world the challenges are the same for parents to engage children form the earliest age into meaningful activities. Mykidsy.com is a one stop shop to do that. We also developed our own classes teaching children entrepreneurship. Financial l i t e r a c y, c o d i n g , m i n d f u l n e s s a n d sustainability.

The mykidsy playground is a designed and built concept by me that will be rolled out in

don’t use my car a lot but walk or also use a manual scooter often.

hotels across the world and will also include the tools to teach children those life skills while residing in hotels.

My vision for mykidsy is that it will improve life of children across the globe as we grow internationally. Hotels are global so we can combine the growth in conjunction and make hotels places of fun education for children .

change a very classical and old fashioned industry with his first 'design hotels' in the 80’s.

One of the architects I admired was Anna Castelli Ferrieri who was a close friend. The was an amazing architect amidst a very male dominated time especially at her time. She never got discouraged and just followed her dreams and created amazing work during her life time and also was teaching internationally even in her 90”s.

What do you do in your daily personal life and when you are traveling in the name of sustainability?

I meditate each morning before I get up and play tennis and gold each week. I am more and more looking to travel to natural destinations and hotels that respect the environment. I

What steps do you take to make your personal life more sustainable?

We try to avoid plastics as good as possible and also do not toxic chemicals including all cleaning but also beauty products. I am reducing the use of my car to going to the countryside mainly and also my son walks each day to the school One past or living hotelier and/or hospitality leader do you admire most? Ditto for architects?

I admire Ian Schrager for having changed the status quo of hotels and for his boldness to

Can you share your favourite place/hotel to stay?

I really like to go with my family but also friends to the Intercontinental Hotel in Berchtesgaden ( now Kempinski) that I

designed in 2006. It has still not been changed and the setting is stunning and close to my favourite city Salzburg. However do I also like very much the Aman hotels as a brand to go to.

The three essential ingredients for a new sustainable hotel concept are… ?

Using sustainable materials that go beyond rattan and wood as there are so many exiting materials that have not been used so far.

Integrating the community and offering local arts and crafts, art, experiences, and reinventing the food palette by organic and healthy food also for children.( the men for children still consist to at least 90% across the world in pasta with tomato sauce or pizza or

hamburger. Difficult to believe but a fact) Your opinion, outlook and advise re more female architects in luxury hospitality.

What are the challenges and your intention to contribute as an Ambass ador with LeadingHôtelières?

I think women need to be more self confident and less intimidated by a male dominated field.

I think it is more important to follow your passion and road than to be annoyed about injustice in gender equality. I am hopeful that it will change over the next decades and women will get more the recognition they deserve. However one should not wait for changes to happen and be part of that change by implementing ones desires and by being

resilient, focused and determined. The mindset is very important next to all expertise and talent.

One word what still motivates you after so long in business?

The excitement of creating an idea in my mind and being ablate to see it build in the real world, is of such satisfaction, that it is hard to describe!

What’s your most treasured possession?

My children. No they are not my possessions but my passion. Coming to your answer it is my passport that allows me to travel the world.

When was the last time you completely unplugged?

I always unplug when in nature. I play each Sunday golf with my children in beautiful Stoke Park and it is so beautiful and meditative for me. The same is when we go with friends to the seaside for a day or weekend and inhale a breeze of fresh air.

That is truly calming and relaxing for me.

Where do you see the biggest challenges in terms hotel concepts & destinations for the post-Covid period?

He alth and well-b eing need to b e considered wholly, including: intellectual, physiological, social, material & spiritual, mental & emotional well being.Wellness hotels will be at the rise .We need to take

this opportunity to redesign our culture, our behaviour and the use of natural resources.We need to design from the inside out.We have to allow more fresh air flow for cleaner environments. Hotels need to upgrade their infrastructures to address the demand for more perceived safety which will also come from more emphasis on outdoor space and integration of fresh air spaces.

Finally, name at least two items that are on top of you personal/family bucket list?

Travelling with my son for 3 months to South America, hiking in Patagonia, walking the Camino Real with my children.

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