>download
Magazine
Casa International
ASCER
BMW MOTOR MUNICH
GALACTIC SUITE
FLAMENCO TOWERS
HOTEL HOSPES GRANADA
TORRE BEIJING
(China)
DESIGN DREAM
“Innovation is thinking about something that interests you and doing it” – Xavier Claramunt
Architect and designer Xavier Claramunt is a tireless worker. He is also a man of action. 14 hours, 7 days a week, but considering the huge amount of material and ideas that accumulate in his studio, he couldn’t work any other way. However, the way he works is rather relaxing, which is based on assuming that nothing is impossible. That must be why he can move easily between the meticulous world of jewellery and the impossible volumes of his skyscrapers, as well as working on designs and interior design projects where style is the outstanding feature. He is the driving force and leader of EQUIP XCL, a company which provides a surprise in each new project and which has made permanent innovation its best means of moving on and growing.
The concept behind this is that he and his team never stop and think, they just act. Claramunt’s viewpoint of innovation is thinking about something that interests you and doing it, that is, starting production. Their work is basically about putting forward ideas, in the sense that the works are answers to the needs of a client or situation. The key is to formulate the right questions, and based on that, to try and find some specific answers to them. The working strategy is very clear and is based on systematization, processes and discipline. In EQUIP XCL they don’t ask anyone to provide explanations about the work that they are doing, but they take photos of everything that has been produced once a fortnight, so that nothing ends up not being used. This gives them an advantage as sometimes, an idea that they developed some time ago and then rejected and filed away suddenly meets a specific present need. So they already have the architectural resource or design worked out and projected. That explains why they produce things very quickly.
Claramunt has put a lot emphasis on team work and he has always believed in multidisciplinary work. The best thing of this is that they are always surrounded by more powerful people who make you learn and move you forward.
Right now they are working on the Galactic Suite project, the space hotel. It is of those projects that came about almost as a joke, but began to gradually take shape. The Galactic Suite, as well as being an obviously unusual project, involves working with teams that are very different to those that they are used to.
You may think Claramunt is just a lone day dreamer, but don’t forget dream is to be pursued, not to be achieved.