The Eye That Shaped a Skyline

In this episode, Lyssia sits down with Kobi Karp, a legendary Miami-based architect whose firm has designed over $36 billion in buildings across the world, from luxury resorts and residential towers to affordable housing and historic restorations. With more than 30 years of shaping the Miami skyline and beyond, Kobi brings a perspective on architecture that goes far deeper than what any building looks like on the outside.

The conversation breaks down why the way a building sits on its land, orients itself to light, and moves you through its spaces matters more than any finish, material, or aesthetic choice. They explore why most people focus on the wrong things when designing or renovating a home, how natural light does something for your psychology that no renovation can replicate, and why the buildings that last hundreds of years all share one thing in common, they were designed for how life actually feels, not just how it looks. Kobi also shares what decades of designing across six continents has taught him about what people everywhere truly want from their spaces, and the one thing he would tell anyone to do first if they want their home to feel better without spending a dollar.

By the end of this episode, you may start to see every building differently, not just as something that was constructed, but as something that was felt first.

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Kobi Karp
Website: www.kobikarp.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kobikarp/

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Transcript

Imperfection And The Feeling Of Space

Kobi Karp 0:00

No place is ever perfect. No building is ever perfect. No person is ever perfect. If we can get close to it, then we have taken the steps in the best way that we can as humans on this earth.

Lyssia Katan 0:11

Do you think that what we're designing today is going to last for a hundred years?

Kobi Karp 0:16

What the actual structure looks like is critical, but it's secondary. What is the deal maker? It's how it lays out and how it feels. We as architects as designers, we are just a mirror or a reflection of who our clients are, because ultimately it's their home.

Lyssia Katan 0:30

Why does that detail matter?

Kobi Karp 0:33

In any structure, the first thing you should do is you should try to peel back the onion.

Lyssia Katan 0:39

And what I mean by that is what if the reason you feel good or bad in a space has nothing to do with the furniture and everything to do with the architecture? Welcome to Room to Think. Today I'm sitting down with Kobi Karp. He's a legendary architect whose work has helped shape much of the Miami skyline and major projects around the world. Kobe has designed luxury resorts, residential towers, large-scale mixed-use developments, and he's done it across multiple continents. In this conversation, Kobe explains why light might be the most powerful tool in architecture. We also discuss why the way a building sits on the land matters more than what it looks like. And we get into why our connection to nature might be the most important part of good design. By the end of this episode, you'll start to realize that architecture isn't just what we see, it's something we feel. Let's get into it. Hi, Kobe. Welcome to the show.

Kobi Karp 1:38

Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure.

Lyssia Katan 1:40

Kobi Karp is a renowned architect, planner, and designer whose work has helped shape much of the modern Miami skyline. His firm has designed and planned major residential, hospitality, and mixed-use projects around the world. And his work has been recognized internationally for both design and development. Across his work, a consistent influence is nature and the relationship between buildings, light, landscape, and the environment. Kobi, welcome to Room to Think.

Kobi Karp 2:09

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.

Lyssia Katan 2:11

So I

Why Architecture Became His Joy

Lyssia Katan 2:12

generally ask guests what they do, but we've all seen what you do. We've interacted with it. But why do you do it?

Kobi Karp 2:19

I do it because I enjoy it. I can't think of anything else that I would rather do than to design spaces, indoor outdoor spaces. And it gives me a certain comfort level and a certain ability to enjoy the day in what I do. It is not work for me. It is really fun. And that's what I enjoy doing. And that's why I even enjoy being here with you right now. You know, this is a great opportunity to have a dialogue, take a break, take a breather, and just think about things as we go through the day.

Lyssia Katan 3:04

Absolutely. Well, I'm honored to have your time. Was there a particular space that inspired you to be an architect, or was it something you just always knew you wanted to do?

Kobi Karp 3:14

I think it's an evolution. I think that as I was younger, I did not know what really an architect does. And as I went through high school, college, I came to understand that what an architect does really is design spaces, buildings, both inside and outside. And it's not just how the building looks, because what you may like today, you're in blue, tomorrow you may want to wear black. That is dynamic. But the design has to be strong and has to function. And what I mean by that is like coming to a courtyard or a piazza in Italy. You see, as you enter the piazza from a little street, you have an explosion of the space. And that's where people get together, whether it's for the market or for the fountain. And then you see the buildings. Oh, this is the church. Wow. Oh, this is the Siki Hall. This is the homes. And everybody starts to come together. And that sort of DNA is critical because buildings are like people. They're different. They're different at their point of time, at birth, or as they get older, or when they're about to get recycled, hopefully. Many buildings do get recycled. Many buildings, regretfully, have to be demolished. But buildings that do get recycled, like our offices here, you're more than welcome to come to Winwood and see us. Before that, it was a Jaffer pile company that does the piles for construction. So what happens is that we have a variety of buildings that can get recycled and rejuvenated. And it's kind of like us reinventing ourselves, no different than Madonna has reinvented herself multiple times over the decades, right? So it's interesting in that sense.

Lyssia Katan 5:18

And you've

What Makes Homes Last 100 Years

Lyssia Katan 5:19

spoken about uh you living in a hundred-year-old house. What does that entail? What do you think uh creates the longevity in a hundred-year-old house?

Kobi Karp 5:31

I think that the design has been figured out a hundred years ago. And I live in a house that is built on wooden piles. And when you put wood in the soil and it's moist like it is here in Florida, it stays as wood in perpetuity. What is interesting is that the house was also built elevated. You walk up steps, uh porch, and then you walk up most steps, and you enter the house. So the house is elevated, and there's a breeze underneath the house. It's called a crawl space. So you can crawl underneath and face the plumbing or the electrical. But really, it is for ventilation. There's breeze blocks on the end, and it lets the tropical air blow through the house and keep the wood or the concrete dry from the moisture on an ongoing basis. And it also allows the floods and as the sea level rises and goes up and down, it keeps the structure dry. And so that kind of DNA or design thought process has been an existence for a very long time. And to live in a house like that makes you appreciate it, that the house has been recycled over the years, the decades, and we are just holding it temporarily while we go through this life here together.

Lyssia Katan 6:56

Do you think that what we're designing today is going to last for 100 years? Or is architecture these days very short-lived?

Kobi Karp 7:05

I would like to be optimistic. I would like to think that it is sustainable and resilient. And um, we live through the cycles of life and economics. And I think that it will most good designs and most good buildings. You can go to New York and there are many, many high-rise and buildings that have been there for quite a while. You can go to Austria and you can go to London and Paris and see buildings that were built 300, 400, 500 years ago. I grew up in Israel, and in the Middle East, you have buildings that go back 3,000 years, 4,000 years, right? And you have that kind of wow affair where you can dig down and see how people built upon the history. But buildings, our design is dynamic. It continuously changes. The desire of the people changes. And people are finicky. And what they like in this generation, they may not like in the next generation. So it makes it interesting and it makes our life as architects, as designers, more interesting and more enlightening.

The Soul Is In Layout

Lyssia Katan 8:14

Right. And and you've you've spoken a lot about the soul of a building. At what point does a building go from something that's functional to something that has soul?

Kobi Karp 8:23

I think that the soul of the structure comes from the way it sits on the land and the way it orients itself to open up. And what I mean by that is that if you design a building well, it the it's like us, you know, you come and you and you meet somebody and that's their face, but then you get to see their whole body and explore their whole body, but that's still the physical. Once you come to live inside the house or the office or the church or whatever building it is, you become knowledgeable and connected to the inside of the building. And if buildings are laid out properly and designed properly, like our bodies, um, you and I might look different on the outside. We do look different on the outside. But on the inside, God willing, our heart and our lungs and our eyes and our ears are substantially in the same location. But if God forbid they are not, then you have a problem and you have a serious design flaw in the way the building was situated or located, or how do you enter it? And many people express it as zen, or some people express it as um a vibe. But really, what it is, it's you walk up to the house and it feels good. And you open the door and you see through the house and you see the garden in the back, and you go, oh, that feels good. And then you walk through the garden and the kitchen is to your right, and it opens up, and you can have uh a cafecito or a meal or the family room is to your left, right? And you can hear um, for example, the kids playing on the lounge upstairs, it opens up to the staircase. So there's both visual connectivity and audio connectivity, and then it starts to feel better upon you. It is no different, I'll give you an example of churches, right? You the church itself, like the Duomo in Italy, you come and you you you see the town, and then you see the top, you see the cupel on top, you see the dome, and then you enter the town and the church has disappeared. Until you walk through the small streets, and then you come to the Piazza Plaza, and it opens up and you see the whole facade in front of you, and you go, Oh wow, it's huge. And then you come up to the door, and it's not Sunday, it's just the middle of the week, and you open a little door within the big door, and that little door is for the priest to come in and service the church on a daily basis. And you walk into this heavy wooden door that was built a thousand years ago. But once you enter, you see through the space, you see through the nave, and you see the cross, and you see the organ, and you see where people participate, and it gives you a sense or feeling of peace and quiet. And it can be a church, and it can be a mosque in uh Jeddah, and it can be a temple, it can be a Zen temple, it can be a monastery built on top of a mountain by monks two, three hundred years ago. It gives you a peace uh and quiet inside, psychological, mental, physical, that connects you with the earth. The way the stone feels on the floor, the way the wood is when you touch it or you sit, and the sound um is very important. And that is what the true sense of architecture is about, the true feeling of architecture. Because today I may like the marble to be green, or tomorrow I may like it to be yellow. That is transient, that is the taste, but the inherent beauty of the buildings that goes on in perpetuity if it's designed properly and laid out properly.

Lyssia Katan 12:29

Absolutely. And and I'm glad you mentioned that because I've experienced that when I went to uh La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and just these beautiful columns, it's it's it's it strikes all. How do you, when you're designing something like that, how do you design something so intangible when you're looking at a piece of paper?

Kobi Karp 12:49

I think every time, and that's what makes it fun and interesting, right? Because each building is different. It's not, it's like people, you know. I had two boys, um, same mother, hopefully the same father. I saw them come up. But at the end of the day, they are substantially different from each other. Um, they like each other, the chemistry is good, the vibe is good. But they're different. And the same thing with buildings. You can have two properties next to each other, but just due to sunlight and orientation and views with clients, you then carve it and design it in a different form and fashion. I had a client that we cited the house to maximize the views, yet they liked curves. I had another client that also we oriented the house to maximize the view, but they liked straight lines, right? And so it's just different strokes for different folks. And that's what we as architects, as designers, listen to because we are just a mirror. We are a reflection of who you are, we're a reflection of who our clients are, because ultimately it's their home, it's their wishes, it's their desires. And that's what we have to accommodate, and that's what we have to think about continuously every second.

Nature As A Mood Regulator

Lyssia Katan 14:15

And from a psychological perspective, how do you think our spaces, our homes or these buildings, how are they shaping our mood or our behavior, maybe even our identity over time? Have you seen that?

Kobi Karp 14:30

Yes. I think that the spaces define who we are. I think the spaces give us the natural light, the natural air, the green gives you a feeling. I'm sitting now in my office, it's very quiet, but I'm sitting about 150 feet away from I-95, and I don't hear anything because I have hurricane impact glass. Yet the glass is very important because it lets me see the can't the tree canopies around the yard. At the same time, seeing the tree canopies is very nice because I'm facing north. The sun is on the south from east to west as the sun rises and sets. But really, I have an opportunity to see the trees all being lit up by the natural tropical sunlight. And it creates a nice vibe and atmosphere for the people who work here in the office, because this used to be a warehouse. So we took the glass to the top of the um structure, which gave us 15, 20 feet high spaces. And we were able to let more light in. And when people work here, they like to go outside, they sit outside, they have their lunches. When they have a personal phone call, they step outside, they go, people have more interaction with the natural environment. And having interaction with the natural environment, I think makes you a better person. It sets you psychologically, emotionally in a better state of mind. And that is so critical for good design. It's so critical to see the outside, to hear the outside. You know, there's nothing like in the morning right before the sunrise is hearing the birds chirp. That's very, very important. Or hearing the raindrops. That gives you a certain soothing feeling to all individuals. Why? Because uh we've only been living in these houses and structures, maybe if we're lucky a hundred, two hundred years. Some have lived in them 300, 400 years before, but they didn't have mechanical ventilation or sound attenuation. Now, when we live, most of the people in the world do live in these structures, and they have a roof over their head, as we say. It is important to become part of the natural environment. And that is what we subscribe to, it's what we prescribe to, it's what we promote, it's what we think about each and every second.

Lyssia Katan 16:54

I think um it's a very important distinction, and I'm really glad you mentioned nature and gave it such a high uh importance. We've had some neuroscientists on the show, and they all mentioned that studies time and time again show that nature really does do us so well in a way that we can't even always put our fingers on. You incorporate a lot of nature into your designs. How do you incorporate it? Where's the inspiration? And did you know this, or was it trial and error?

Kobi Karp 17:24

I do it on purpose. My first diploma, my first study was environmental design. It wasn't architecture. My second degree was architecture. But really, what I saw when I grew up, and even when I went to school in Minnesota, we studied monasteries and cloisters around the Alps, right? So we would go and study the how are monasteries built, how are they designed? Well, what is the daily life of the monk? What is the intent? How did they build it? How did they come to build it? And so the natural environment is a very powerful force in the way I think, in the way I feel. Um, it makes a big difference. I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But when I came here, I was so much happier because I have more hours of sunlight. I love sun, I love sunlight, I love to be there, I love to be outside. In Minnesota, I would, you know, even if it's January and February and we would go snowmobiling or ice fishing, I wanted to be so desperately at the sunrise and/or the sunset so that I would capture as much sunlight that I can. It gives people, gives me a positive feeling, gives me a positive attitude, makes me feel good. And that is what we try to design on a daily basis. Any place we can carve out to let the natural environment in, whether it's a tree canopy or bird feeder, whether it is to look up to the sky through a skylight, or whether it is to have a punched window in the bathroom, even when you just go into the bathroom, right? Ah, you have a minute to breathe. Whether you do it number one or number two, there's a window in front of you. And it lets you see nature and you become part of nature. And guess what? That's where we came from. That's how we used to go to the bathroom. And now you um we're tying you together to that experience. That creates a value to the space, which then people don't necessarily need to talk about, but they feel it. And that's why historically, people who have walked our spaces, not knowing who designed it or anything like that, desire it. They pay a higher price per foot foot. They talk about it between themselves. You know, I was sitting in Sunset Harbor in Miami Beach, and I was listening to a couple of ladies talking. They were probably in their late 70s, early 80s, and they were having a Saturday afternoon matcha drink outside uh Pure Vita. And they were talking about how much they love their building and so forth. And I'm just sitting there listening. All of a sudden they were talking about that, you know, the Condor Association of the Grand Venetian wanted to paint something on it. So I knew where they were going to live, where they live. And I did that building maybe 25 years ago, right? And when you hear people talk about where they live and they actually like it. And by the way, no place is ever perfect, no building is ever perfect, no person is ever perfect. But if we can get close to it, then we have taken the steps in the best way that we can as humans on this earth for the short time that we're here and make it a little bit better. And so when those two ladies were talking about it, it just gives you warmth and uh it gives you comfort and it gives you satisfaction more so than anything else. And that's what you want to do. That's really what the intent is. When people live in your spaces in your buildings, and by the way, they don't have to be condos or luxury, they can be workforce housing, affordable housing. I was standing in front of Red Rooster in overtown. I came out, and uh some friends of mine were waiting for the valet for the car to come. My car was parked down the street, and um they said, Oh, we'd love to buy here, you know, we should buy here. And they were talking to each other and they're looking across the streets at a building that they wanted to buy, yet they couldn't buy there. And the reason they could not buy there, it's because it is designed as it's called um Lyric Plaza, and it's designed as uh affordable housing, which is subsidized by the state. And so when I see people liking something, and they didn't know that I had any relationship with that building at all, but they saw the park, the linear park. Next door, the Sawyer Park, and then they saw the Lyric Plaza, and they felt that the building felt good to them. And they thought it was a multifamily condo or rental, but it wasn't. It was designed as affordable housing. And it doesn't make a difference if it's workforce or affordable or market trade or condos or luxury or not. It has to be designed well. Because whoever you are, if your body is laid out properly and you're healthy, that's all that matters. That's the most you can, the best you can have. And then if you can carry it psychologically and emotionally inside, as you go through the trials and tribulations of life, whether they're the teens or you know, addictions or wars or um whatever it is, uh diseases that we go through as individuals. If we have a proper place to put our head, it just gives you a certain psychological, emotional comfort to set you straight, to get a good night's sleep and wake up the next day, open your eyes, have a little window, see the sunrise or the bird chirp or the tree, and it gives you a sense of stability and comfort. So that's really what I design around. That's what I design for. It's what I look for more than anything else.

Lyssia Katan 23:28

Do you think that in today's world people underestimate how much of an impact their space has on them?

Kobi Karp 23:34

Yes, I do. I think that people now, more than ever before, have less of an understanding of it. I think that people used to have a greater value of their residences or of their churches or their offices, because the it to have a building was a big deal. Today we're able to produce and reproduce structures uh in such a velocity that it creates the opportunity to not value it as a as much. And that's an important question that you have in the way you're thinking is true, but I also see a come back to the basics. I see people looking at it and saying, you know what? If my house, if my structure would have, could have, should have been elevated, built, or rotated, tilted a little bit, and they're not talking about marbles and gold. They're just talking about basic, as I say, barefoot, elegant lifestyle necessities, right? It lets you eat and breathe better, you and your family, it makes it so much better.

Using Sunlight Like Stage Lighting

Lyssia Katan 24:55

You spoke about the feeling of backlight on a north-facing house on an apartment. What is that feeling and why does it matter when the sun sets? And you said it was like like looking at a show on Broadway. Why why would someone prefer the light over the view?

Kobi Karp 25:10

Because what happens is that when the sun is in your back, and many times you don't think about it, but the sun is in your back and you are looking forward, it like lights up the stage. So if you have a nice stage, tree canopies, ocean, water, other buildings, and it's lit up, it is much better than having the sun in your eyes setting. The sunset is delicious and it's appetizing you as the sun just about goes behind the horizon and disappears, whether it's behind the mountain or the ocean or the water. But that moment the sun is dead. What happens is that when most of the day you have the sun in your back, it lights up your surroundings like a state cell. Like when you go to a Broadway theater, and where you're watching, really, they turn off the lights and light up what you want. We focused upon. At sunset, the sun is dead. At sunrise, which is where you feel rejuvenated. You feel that the energy is coming in and the sun rises no matter where you are, quite rapidly. 15-20 minutes, boom, sun's out. What happens is that that light that comes in changes the mood of the water, changes the mood of the trees, it changes the bird's church, it creates the life. And what's interesting is that if the sun is in your face, you're blinded by the light. Yet if the sun is in your back, it pushes you along. It makes your life easier. And you know, when people look at California, which is always the sun setting and the sun is in your eyes, everybody wears sunglasses. Here in Florida, it's more tropical. The sun is on top. So your eyes are shaded by your eyebrows and your overhangs of your eyes. Here, you have so much more light that in the winter months, your mood has changed. And that's why so many people come to Florida. And yeah, it's the temperature, and yeah, people are more friendly and they're more outgoing than they would be. But you know what? It is the quantity of natural provided sunlight. And that sunlight, if I can draw it into your home, into your residence, if I can orient it in a way that lets you enjoy the like, have the natural like in your house. It is so much better than anything else.

Stop Designing For The Facade

Lyssia Katan 27:55

Do you think that architects often design for the view or for what the customer wants or the client wants, and they make these mistakes?

Kobi Karp 28:04

I think that many architects design for what the image of the structure is. Many people focus on what does the building look like? What does it look like when it stands on the street and on the corner? That's why for many years we built crystalline glass boxes that didn't necessarily reflect who we are as individuals, right? So I think it's important to reflect who we are as individuals because that is what makes life interesting. It's what makes the story. When you meet somebody, hi, how are you? Where are you from? Who are your parents? Who are your you know, who are your friends? The people that surround you by are who you are. The people who brought you here is probably what you are being built upon. And if you have kids, you know, many people talk about their kids like nothing else. And that is what makes architecture and design. But it is not a deal maker. What is the deal maker is how it lays out and how it feels and how you can walk around it, enjoy yourself and the conversation and the neighbors and so on. You know, I can take my phone off the stand and show you what it feels like, and you go, oh, yeah, that feels good. You know, uh it you have that. And that is important because life is short. If you have to spend eight, nine, ten hours in your work or your office or your studio, you want to have a positive experience. You want a positive experience when you go to the bathroom, you want to have a positive experience when you work, you want to have a positive experience when you eat, you want a positive experience when you're talking on the phone to your friends or family. You want to be comfortable. And the more comfortable I can make you, the more successful my design is. If I am not able to do that, then that's not good. It's like, you know, I used to work in El Torito's restaurant, right? And in Minneapolis. And when you come in, it's hi, how are you? and greet you with a true smile and let you sit down quickly and provide you the chips and the hot sauce and some water, so at least you have something to eat and set you quiet. And if you need to go to the bathroom, it's right here. But you know, if you haven't eaten all day or you've been rushed, or you had a death in the family, or you found on some bad news, or you find great news, somebody's birthday. You want to be hospitable and you want to be welcoming. And it is no different than when we used to be in caves and paint on the walls the basi. And it is no different than when we built the ice igloo, and you would be inside with a little hole on top that lets the hot air and the smoke go out from inside. And the igloo wasn't perfect, and the cave was not perfect, and the homes we build are not perfect. But you know what? They're about as close as we can get to make it very, very nice if we just pay attention to what it is that we emotionally, psychologically, and physically desire and eat. And it goes not only the architecture, it goes to the chair, it goes to the lounge, it goes to the banquet, it goes to the, you know, to the carving in the stone. It makes you feel that comfortable. You know, it goes to to the church, right? Where you fall down and you go down on your knees and it is a little cushion there for your knees, right? And then you can look forward and you can spend more time there. And when you do that, arguably it makes you a better person. So those are the kind of things that we think about, you know, and that we talk about.

Lyssia Katan 32:37

And it's

Travel Lessons And Barefoot Elegance

Lyssia Katan 32:38

it's such a universal human experience, right? We all experience space, and you've worked across the world in in Vietnam, in China, and Dubai, Cape Town, among many, many places. What have working, what have those experiences and those places taught you about how people experience space around the world? Have you seen differences, or is it mainly similarities?

Kobi Karp 33:04

The more you travel around the world, the more you work around the more I design around the world in these locations, the more I see the similarities. Instead of doing the church in that sense, we do the mosque, right? And or we do the temple, or we do the building, or you know, and it and so unique and special. I'll give you an example. There is an old temple in the Caribbean, in Curaçao, that you walk in and has the facade and the architecture and the layout, but the floor is made out of sand because the people walk barefoot or they walk with open sandals. And so when you walk on the sand, it gives you a sense of stabilization. It gives you a sense of relaxation, and it also draws everybody to saw. The minute everybody can walk into a space and experience the same feeling, they become more of the same. And so that kind of, as I like to call it barefoot elegance, because it is nice to walk on a stone and wood and feel the texture of the natural environment below your feet as you step out, you walk on the grass with the sand. It feels good. And people all around the world are all the same. Their basic needs are the same. They get up in the morning, a little water, something to eat. They have to go to the bathroom the same way. We all put on our pants the same way in the morning, one leg at a time. So the more you start to see the basics, the more you can focus about the unique opportunities that I can carve it out and make it special for you. And that is what makes the field of architectural design more unique and special, because I can then take the basics, which I'm very familiar with, and make a destination for you that is radically different than anybody else. And I'll give you an example. We just uh finished uh uh a project in Miami, and it's called um Delilah, it's a restaurant. You can walk in, it's showy and fufu, and the bar and the dancers with the feathers, but I can take you to the outside and have you sit outside under a canopy that protects you from the sun and from the rain, and you can look over Biscayne Bay and you have a marina, and you look over Clawton Island where they're building the Mandarin now, right? So what happens is that that kind of indoor and outdoor experience makes it very, very, very unique and special. And that's really, you know, such a pleasure to do in my life as an architect. It gives me the feeling that every day is going to be different. Every day is going to be something special. And that is really what I look for in the design. Because otherwise, what else is there? So we want to find uniqueness. We want to find new things. Um, and that is what makes it special: the individual, the location, the composition. That's really what is unique. And to design in Cape Town, South Africa, Moody Point, right by the lighthouse, was a great pleasure. But then the more we got to know it, everybody was building masonry buildings around it with little windows. We said, no, we will build glass, small glass, more views. We can see the whales go by. Oh, good idea. And then again, we oriented it with the sun because Table Mountain is right there and the sports fields are right there. And that made the building very not only successful, but also desirable for people to go to the food and beverage downstairs. They're desirable to live there. And if they can't live there, they they like to hang around the building. You know, it's like when you like somebody in a party, you go and you hang around them and you talk to them and you spend time with people like that. That's what we like to do as designers.

Lyssia Katan 37:21

It shows you that we're not all that different at all.

Kobi Karp 37:24

No, we're very, very, very similar. Very similar. We're the same thing in Dubai as we do in Abu Dhabi. Same thing we do in Sochi Russia or anywhere else. It's really contiguous and continuous. People want the same thing. And they want the same kind of a feeling, right? Whether you're in the north or in the south, in the eastern hemisphere or the western hemisphere, you want to be connected to the outdoors and be feeling that space in a very unique and dramatic way.

Lyssia Katan 37:54

What about the

Monasteries History And Timeless Light

Lyssia Katan 37:55

monasteries? You said you uh traveled many different monasteries. What did you learn that you were able to take back to the buildings that you design designed today, besides the nature aspect, like how the monks lived? Did you get time to experience that?

Kobi Karp 38:09

So the monasteries are interesting because monasteries, the monks were building the monasteries in a way to give themselves a quiet and peaceful life. And they would build their own monasteries to the way they would need to operate and live and study and maintain the books and the scrolls and pray on a daily basis. So even though their life was very monastic, if it were very simple, the construction, they built with their own hands their own structures on the site with materials that were right there. So they would carve the stone and the rock and they would build the structures. And it became very appreciated by the builder that was really building it for themselves. And they knew that they probably would die before they would be finished with the building. And somebody else would probably pick up the work and finish it in the same way and/or a modified way, which is multi-generational design and construction in a monastic way. And it created an opportunity to see things like building a cross is one way, but to carve out the negative space in the stone, it has the cross shaped in it, it is oriented towards the sunrise or the sunset. And it creates that light inside the space. It's very dramatic and thoughtful. Yet it was created 3,000 years before that by the Romans who created uh historic structures in Roma, like the Pantheon, which has a hole in the ceiling that the light comes in and moves around the perimeter and highlights, spotlights the architecture of the dome. And that building is still there today. Yeah, it's built by cement and block and concrete through 2,000 years ago, more than 2,000 years ago. And that's what's interesting. You know, the monastic lifestyle of eating, the dining rooms, the prayers, the chambers, the libraries where they hold the scrolls, became a very unique opportunity of where other architects picked it up later on in life and said, less is more. And then some people picked it up and said, you know, more, you know, is more, right? And they picked it up and they said they want to go another direction. And that's what makes the human race so different. What is good for the goose is not necessarily goose for the gander. What's good for you is not so good for somebody else. Now you might like the room size and the materials and the finishes, but you want a window and you want action. And many people want action and they want that to give them their peace of mind. And some people want the other, the complete opposite. And that's what makes the world go round is that you have an opportunity as an architect, as a space builder, both indoor and outdoor spaces, to provide that to people. And for me, that gives me pleasure.

Lyssia Katan 41:26

What about you you've spoken about this and we touched on this earlier? The windows in the bathrooms and showers, that's such an important point. Why does that detail matter so much to you?

Kobi Karp 41:36

It matters because we used to go to the bathroom outside. We used to shower outside. And now we don't. Yet for thousands of years, that's what we did. But something has changed in the past hundred years. From being outside to being inside, from being unprotected from the natural elements to being protected from the natural elements, instead of feeling the cold in the winter in Minnesota, feeling nice and toasty, instead of feeling the hot air in Miami, you're feeling nice and cool and dry. Instead of feeling the hurricane, you are protected. Um, and even when there is a windstorm or collateral damage from a hurricane, you have your generators and you are protected and you feel safe. That kind of opportunity is changed or is changing the way we think or behave as humans. I believe we were stronger when we were more in nature, when we were more agrarian rather than you know living in cities. Yet the future is more in cities. More people will live more in cities in the near and or distant future than ever before. So that's not going to change. That continuous evolution will continue. And what's interesting is that we live more and more closer together. We used to live a carriage, a day's carriage ride away from each other. Not anymore. Today we live right next to each other, on top of each other, with each other, in a very cocial life. That even when we're not physically with each other, like right now, you and I are on the phone. We see each other, we talk to each other. I can see you where you are, you can see who I am. That did not exist when I was a child. That did not exist when I was a teenager. That did not exist when I was 35 years old, when I was with Blackberries, it did not exist. This is an opportunity now to be closer together, no matter where you are. So the communication or the sense of The feeling is very, very different. And you and I can be looking and listening and talking now. This podcast is a perfectly good example. I can share with you my thoughts and have a one-on-one conversation. And other people will listen to it in a completely different location and environment and may love it or may not care for it, but they will say, Wow, you know, that person has a good point. I want to be an architect. That could be interesting. I want to be a host. No, I wonder if I can make my quality of life better. I want that is what people are practicing now, more so than ever before. So to answer your thought, I think that people now, more so than ever before, are taking a physical, mental step back and looking at what it is that they can do to make their quality of life better, longer, more sustainable, more resilient. And in a way, yes, it's working more with nature, but it's also working more with each other. Where there's less arguments and less fighting and less nonsense. Because today, with this communication that we're having here and the architecture that we have today, we can recycle buildings more, we can create values. I can recycle historic structures like I did at the surf club or the Caribbean or the Cadillac and create greater and better value with architecture and designs that were done a hundred years ago. My son loves to buy vintage. The other one is monastic lifestyle. He needs nothing except for what it is, like a phone or food, so that he can carry on with his life. Everybody's different. And what is nice about what it is that we do, whether we design a chair or a table or a building, is to create a destination that improves who we are for the short time that we're here. And that is really the message. That is really the opportunity that I have as an architect. And I just happen to be here in Florida where it's beautiful and it's tropical. And Florida is booming right now for the past 25, 35 years. I've been here since 1988. But it wasn't like that before. There were issues. And you know, New York was the pinnacle of civilization. Yet today, pinnacles of civilization exist elsewhere, as well as New York. So you have to travel around the world and see the other pinnacles so that you can have a more comprehensive understanding of life. And that's how I ended up designing in other places. Hainan Island in China. You know, you're working in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, working in Cambodia. That's nice. And at the same time, it is unique and opportunistic to create those designs because then you create a dialogue with the local architects, the local builders. And it makes you, I think it makes you a better person, a more comprehensive person. Because the more people you can understand and relate to and communicate with, the better person you become personally, yourself from a selfish standpoint, and the better person you become for the community surrounding. And we all have just a little circle of people around us that we impact. When you look at the holistic quantity of people around the world, which is currently shrinking, it's not expanding. Um it's interesting times. It's very interesting.

Lyssia Katan 47:58

Absolutely. I mean, we work, I'm in the tele industry, we work with Vietnam all the time. And Ho Chi Minh City, the first time I visited, opened my eyes to, yeah, we're all human, but the way we're living and the the amount of people, the motorbikes, it just completely transforms the way you look at the world. So it's it's nice to hear that you're encouraging everyone to go out and see, because where do we get our inspiration from at the end of the day?

Kobi Karp 48:24

Yeah. Yeah, you go to Hanoi, you know, Hanoi, French colonial structures built like in the house I live in with cross-ventilation. And it shows you what people a hundred years ago had the vision or the desire. And whenever we think we're great, just take a step back. Look at the pyramids. We still don't know how we built them. We lost that knowledge between the time we built them to the time we had the Dark Ages and the Renaissance again, we lost the knowledge. So it's interesting.

Practical Moves To Improve Your Home

Lyssia Katan 49:00

For someone listening who wants their home to feel better without a full-on renovation, what is what and one change you would tell them to make first or something to look at?

Kobi Karp 49:12

I think in any structure, the first thing you should do is you should try to peel back the onion. And what I mean by that is that study the history of your house and/or your residence, go to the city, get the plants that were drawn originally, and see what it is that you can bring back. When we did the surf club, for example, people had dropped ceilings because they want to save money on air conditioning. We removed the drop ceiling. Oh wow, look, honey, the ceilings are beautiful and vaulted with wood and beautiful hand painted by these Italian craftsmen that came here a hundred years ago. Oh, look, there's a mural on the wall. That people just after 50, 60 years, didn't see the value. They said, it's old. You can hide it. When you start to peel back and learn the history of where you live, you may find a missing jewel, a hidden jewel, an opportunity that you didn't think about before. That's the first thing. And then also when you come to a space, the first thing you should do is look at where the sun rises and where it sits. Because that's going to affect the natural light coming into your life, whether it's your living room, your bedroom, your bathroom on a daily basis. And that's important. And then also the third thing is then to look around you at what it is that you see as the natural environment. It can be mountains in the desert, it can be tree canopies that shade your house in a certain way. It can be a mango tree that bears fruit at a certain time of the year. It can be a lot of things. And what is interesting is that if you give yourself the time to start to think like that, it compounds. It builds more. It's like saying, Oh, you know, I don't exercise anymore. Then you start exercising and you start to feel how it's better for you, and it balances your body and it gives you physical and psychological balance. And you say, I want to continue, you start to build upon it. That's what happens when you start to study the history or the natural environment and surroundings of where it is that you live, wherever it is that you live. You'll be more cognizant of it. You'll have a better quality of life. You'll understand why the porch is in your front yard or in your backyard. You'll understand why the garbage bins are in a certain location. You'll understand why you are on the third floor and the staircase is very good for you to walk up and down versus the elevator. And then you start to live with your natural environment and your built environment. And if you can become part of it of your built and natural environment, you will feel better, you will look better, and you will live longer. You will have a better quality of physical and mental life for a longer period of time. And it's great that we invented elevators, and they're great if you can take elevators. But if you live in the first five floors of a building, walk it. Walk not just down, walk up. It's important for you, nobody else. And it will give you peace and tranquility because very far and few people walk up and down the steps.

Lyssia Katan 52:37

That's really good advice. Is there an element that you believe every home should have, regardless of where it's located or what the budget is?

Kobi Karp 52:46

Yes. Every home should have an open fire pit, fireplace, oven. Because that's what we always surrounded, where they're inside the igloo and that's where you cook. And that's where you know the TP, that's where you should always in my mentality. Yes, we can have a hidden kitchen enclosed with a pantry, but really we like to express the openness of sharing the food. Um, even if the best thing that you make is reservations. Um, and you just order DoorDash, you should have it and eat together. And when you're eating, you can't talk so much. Therefore, you should listen more. And uh that's very important to do.

AI The Next Generation And Self Care

Lyssia Katan 53:31

Looking ahead, you've spoken about talking to the next generation through your work. What do you hope that they understand or carry forward?

Kobi Karp 53:40

I think the next generation is continuously evolving around us. Uh look, I'll be 64 this November, and I'm looking at how AI, for example, is improving my business. And some people say, Oh, you're gonna be out of a job. People told me that 30 years ago when we started to work with computers. Not so fast. AI is very good. It makes our ability to work better and be better, and it's not perfect, just like we're not perfect. And it may never be perfect, which is going to be really what people will find out. Because there's nothing perfect in nature, and there's nothing it's always something going on. What is interesting is that the next generation will be smarter, stronger, if they set their mind to study what is important, which is history and us as the human race. If you study the history of people and civilization, it makes you so much better and stronger. And you know, I uh I grew up in Minnesota, and people said to me, you know, Kobe, what we like about the Bible is we study the history of our people for the past 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 years, 5,000 years if you're Jewish, if you're Christian or Muslim, it's 2,000 years approximately. But you study the history of people. How do they behave with each other? How do they get divorced from each other? How do two brothers behave with each other? How do they live together? What do they build and how do they build? And it the more you study the history of who we are, not from a religious standpoint, but just a historical standpoint, I think it makes you, as an individual, a better person. If you meet people and you know where they came from and what their uh backgrounds are, or you see their kids and you see where the kids are trending out and how they're being, how the kids treat you, it becomes interesting because that's the next generation versus the old generation. And it gives you that bridge and connectivity to see because we are just a reflection of who came before us. And it's like you and me. We know who our parents are. Great, thank you. We know who our grandparents are. Oh, you're a genius, Obi. Do you know who your great parents are? Do you know where they came from? Do you know what languages they spoke? Do you know what they did? Forget the great guy, great, great. You have 99% have no clue from whatever background they are. They can be Chinese, they can be Vietnamese, they can be Western, Eastern, Africa, Angola, whatever you want. It makes no difference. People lose touch with their four parents so easily. And the more you study that, the more you understand that, the better as a person you will be. And you will learn also not to make mistakes that we continuously and repeatedly have made in the past that allowed us to lose things, like the knowledge of how the pyramids were built.

Lyssia Katan 56:42

So if someone listening was to take one thing away from this podcast, what would you want it to be?

Kobi Karp 56:48

Take care of three people. Me, myself, and I, first and foremost. Take care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally. Make yourself stable because then you can be such a better person for everybody around you. You can be better for your parents, for your kids, for your friends, and for your family.

Lyssia Katan 57:04

Kobe, thank you so much for your time, for your designs, for really transforming the Miami skyline so we all get to enjoy it every day. You are an absolute legend, and I'm so honored to have had you on the podcast.

Kobi Karp 57:16

It's my pleasure. Thank you for taking me into your consideration.

Lyssia Katan 57:19

Thank

Closing And Listener Support

Lyssia Katan 57:20

you so much for spending this time with me on Room to Think. If you enjoyed this episode, feel free to follow the show, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who you think would really appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. You can find more Design Meets Psychology insights on social, in our community, and definitely in upcoming episodes, so you can build a better life by design. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you next time.