Kobi Karp. Courtesy of Kobi Karp.
Think about having a home designed to look like a series of floating rectangles with a 17 feet of clearance from sea level in the event of a flood. Or smart homes fitted with health-tracking devices customized to each client’s needs. Or an entire pandemic-prepared 600-feet hotel with a residential, hospitality, health and well-being urban ecosystem.
There are not that many architects who have that in their portfolio like Miami-based Kobi Karp. The man behind the same company name, Kobi Karp Architecture and Interior Design Inc. (KKAID) offers a holistic approach to his projects. His works lean toward building experiences, not just the architecture of buildings, as Premium Digital Control learned.
Wide range of projects
The first project mentioned above is what the Wall Street Journal called a modern home on stilts located in Coconut Grove. The 14,020-square-foot home has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a five-car garage, a gym, a boat lift and a media room.
There are double-height ceilings of up to 24 feet in the living room. A flexible space totaling about 2,000 square feet is used as a creative office. An elevator goes from the ground floor to the roof terrace and features a plunge pool and a large waterfront deck with a 60-foot pool.
The second one consists of smart homes, featured by the New York Times for their more personalized approach. Imagine having a home designed to check a resident’s risk for cancer, heart attack, seizure or stroke, as part of Karp’s distinctive ultramodern designs. Hidden sensors reportedly provide a regular flow of communication on the health and well-being of occupants.
The third one is the upcoming Legacy Miami, in partnership with Royal Palm Companies, with construction to be handled by Kast Construction. It will be the first high-end residential experience that incorporates a holistic lifestyle experience – with a planned medical center that will reportedly include a diagnostic lab, a pharmacy, surgery rooms, medically equipped rooms, ultrasound imaging facilities, X-Ray, MRI and CT Scan.
In the event of a public health emergency, it will reportedly have medical gas and ventilators to shelter guests and residents in place.
These are much newer projects but Mr. Karp has hundreds of big projects that have made him a household name. These include a number of luxury properties such as the ritzy Four Seasons hotels, the eco-chic flagship 1 Hotel South Beach, and the Palazzo Del Sol in Fisher Island.
The new Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Fort Lauderdale is a 22-story, yacht-shaped building anchored in the city’s coastline.
Ultramodern design in Miami Beach. Courtesy of Kobi Karp.
The man behind the popular firm
Mr. Karp started his business in 1996, offering full-service architectural and interior designs with a vast array of services, ranging from the design of large-scale, high-rise condominium and hospitality projects to intimate, small-scale low-rise residential and commercial structures.
Educated at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Technology, Mr. Karp earned degrees in both Architecture and Environmental Design. His career started in major hospitality and all-inclusive resort projects throughout the US and the Caribbean.
Legacy Miami. Courtesy of Legacy Miami.
A licensed Professional Architect in 15 states and in Abu Dhabi (UAE), the award-winning architect and his firm have designed over 36 billion square feet of properties worldwide.
Mr. Karp is a recognized member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and his firm was most recently honored by AIA as 2019’s Firm of The Year for his architectural designs.
Mr. Karp creates public and private spaces that fuse surrounding buildings, both existing and/or new like the Miami Beach’s Art Deco Hotel District. He is also known for his biophilic design, an approach to architecture that seeks to connect building occupants more closely to nature, like his design in the entrance of 1 Hotel (see photo).
Pinning down Mr. Karp’s architectural work is not easy. Even Forbes Magazine could only describe him as an environmentalist, evangelist, historian and tourist. The best thing you can do is to be where he has done his wonderful work and experience it for yourself.
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The biophilic design at the entrance of 1 Hotel. Photo courtest of Kobi Karp.