Q&A: Nikolai & Simon Haas – Appetite for Design

Photography by Seth Browarnik, Rodrigo Gaya on October 30th, 2014 in Culture, Editorials

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Nikolai & Simon Haas

Miami, FL – October 24, 2014 – What do you get when you combine creativity, passion and innovation? An appetite for design. On Thursday afternoon, guests gather for the second installment of the Appetite for Design luncheon series, presented by Cultured magazine and YoungArts. This series of intimate luncheons brings together creatives from art, architecture, real estate and design realms. Hosted by Cultured’s editor-in-chief, Sarah Harrelson, the lavish luncheon was held to explore the creative processes of special guests Nikolai and Simon Haas.

The Haas Brothers, Nikolai and Simon, studied stone carving and construction under their father in their hometown of Austin, TX for many years. After being approached by friends who had heard they were adept builders, Nikolai and Simon began working together on small design and construction projects. In 2010 they were asked to design materials for and construct a small Johnston Marklee project at Sony Studios in Los Angeles and from there ‘The Haas Brothers’ was born. The brothers have continued to grow their design studio and spend their time prototyping forms and experimenting with materials, surface textures and processes. Their company has evolved into a multifaceted operation and has garnered international accolades for set design and props for print and video, one of a kind fashion works and their highly original furniture and object designs.

Editor-in-chief of Cultured Magazine, Sarah Harrelson was able to snag a few moments with the design duo, chatting with them about everything from their daily routines, their latest works, as well as what we can expect from them during Art Basel Miami.

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Nikolai & Simon Haas

Sarah: What is the first thing you do when you wake up?

Nikolai: Hang with my fiance and my two cats. We don’t usually allow the cats to sleep with us so in the morning one of us will go pee and they’ll bust in. Spending ten or fifteen minutes family style in the morning really helps me start my day knowing what’s important to me.

Sarah: What is a typical day in the studio?

Simon: Our days in the studio are typically hard to typify. I guess the most consistent thing is checking in with one another and responding to emails. After that, each of us will pick up wherever we left off the day before, for Niki that usually means sculpting and for me it means doing some R&D or working on a painting.

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Nikolai Haas

Sarah: When are you at your most creative?

Nikolai: When I’m in my studio with my team listening to good music. I also tend to get a lot of movie watching and sketching done when I travel.

Sarah: Which item that you created in the last year is your favorite and why?

Simon: I think my favorite piece this year is a painting called “Joshua Free.” It’s the first painting Niki and I have ever worked on together, and it marks a big moment for us as we are bringing our non-design interests into our work even more.

Sarah: How has living in LA influenced your designs?

Nikolai: LA has a crazy and beautiful aesthetic all it’s own that will enter your psyche when you live here. Also it’s very easy and fun to visit all the close by national parks like Big Sur, Joshua Tree, Angeles Forest, Yosemite, Sequoia National Park, the list goes on and on. The plant and wildlife in these spots are unreal, alien and beautiful. The main influence though, is the absolute freedom. LA is as free as can be. We feel like we can be and do anything here. It’s very liberating.

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Simon Haas, Jose Parla, & Nikolai Haas

Sarah: You work in all kinds of materials, do you have a favorite?

Simon: My favorite material is oil paint, but if we are talking about things you can make shapes from, I think glass. Glass has so many states and so many behaviors – it goes from being all goopy and soft to creaking in the way your knees my creak after sitting cross-legged for too long to being hard and brittle. No material has as much potential as glass in my opinion, but it’s great because unlocking that potential takes an extremely sensitive person so it remains sort of a holy grail to me.

Sarah: What was the best piece of design advice you ever received?

Nikolai: Evan Snyderman and Zesty Meyers told Simon and I to make “whatever we wanted,” and that started a whole new way of thinking for us. Up until that point we’d only made work to please others. Now we only please ourselves.

Sarah: Which new work of yours will be available at Art Basel?

Simon: Some amazing rugs that we worked on in Nepal, as well as some new ceramics that change color.

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Jose Parla & Nikolai Haas

Sarah: What are you most looking forward to during art Basel?

Nikolai: Seeing all my pals! I have so many good friends in Miami now and so many people from the art community that I’ve become very fond of. Many of them I only get to see in Miami or Basel every six months. Also, I love smoking joints on the beach in Miami. The sunset is really different than the one in LA and it’s fun to get stoney and watch the clouds and the sea reflect the colors with the sun behind you.

Sarah: Best Art Basel experience so far?

Simon: My best art Basel experience was in Basel this year. I was hanging out with Jeff Zimmerman and Mason Poole at “Lady Bar” in Basel… we walked in looking super square because we’d been having meetings all day – someone called out to us “you are at the wrong party!” and it was this crazy party where a drag performer was feeding the three of us grapes with her mouth and a dominatrix was stapling chains into a guys back next to where we were having drinks. It turns out we were definitely at the RIGHT PARTY! We had a blast.

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Sarah: If you were going to splurge in a piece of art work what would it be?

Nikolai: A Jonas Wood piece for sure. That guy is a total bad-ass and an acquaintance/friend. I think his work is beautiful and new.

Sarah: What is the one thing no one knows about The Haas Brothers yet?

Simon: A lot of people have been saying “honestly I didn’t think I’d like you or your work until I met you” which is a funny and kind of cool thing to hear repeatedly because it’s really new for me. I think what most people don’t realize, given the level of press attention we’ve gotten, is just how much we aren’t “Art Stars” in daily life. I am just as happy being down and out as I am at a fancy party, and actually I fit in much better at grimy clubs than I do at a place like The Soho House.

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