Designer Highlight - Patricia Urquiola

The creative process of Patricia Urquiola is very much a multi-faceted entity and this is manifested in furniture, architecture and installations of wonderful complexity and depth that remain accessible to the most casual of interior layouts.

 A vast array of influences has been distilled down into design pieces that have finely honed physical, technological, historical and cultural attributes resulting in furniture that combines comfort and familiarity with strength, quality and rigour.

After starting out in Spain surrounded by vibrant colour mixes and the Catalan influences of a mother who encouraged hard work, extensive reading and positive criticism, Patricia went on to study architecture and industrial design in Madrid and Milan.

While studying in Milan, Patricia was fortunate to learn from some of the greatest names in twentieth century design such as Achille Castiglioni who emphasized the ‘playful,’ using processes such as reworking, restyling and using found designs.

Another mentor was the master - Vico Magistretti.  Vico drew Patricia into the love of the technical process of creation in relation to the major design companies, which she felt really drew her into the professional design world. Vico of course is famed for the comfort of his furniture, particularly the Maralunga. He had mentioned to Patricia his wish to create a chair made out of cushions. This was to become Patricia’s ‘Husk’ sofa, chair and bed range for B&B Italia. Both the Husk dining chair and lounge chair are notoriously comfortable.

Her work became noted for juxtapositions between popular culture references, folk techniques and traditional formality.  This magpie approach had an overlay of serious contemporary design ideology. The end user could feel a contemporary aesthetic yet still enjoy the familiarity of the subtle, redefined cultural references.

An obvious example of this is the reworking of traditonal Capitonne tufting in the highly successful  ‘Tufty-Time’ modular sofas for B&B Italia. Another B&B example is the ‘Bend’ sofa, trimmed with a traditional blanket stitch to outline the uneven, sculptural curves created with 3D technology.

Patricia’s design Influences are varied and often quite ephemeral – the Redondo Armchair for Moroso, inspired by an Englishman’s quilted outdoor jacket or the Floe Insel sofa setting for Cassina, designed after a trip to ice floes in Greenland or even the Fat Fat range for B&B Italia which had a starting point with a lowly communal ashtray.

Ever ubiquitous, Patricia’s designs include bathroom ware – such as the Vieques bath for  the W resort on the Caribbean island of Vieques – this bath was inspired by local sounds and materials but has an austere aesthetic that can suit anything from a Japanese styled home, a woody beach house or an urban concrete bunker.

In 2015, Patricia was appointed art director at Cassina. As well as official duties, Patricia has continued to design furniture such as the solid wood Back-wing chairs, the Japanese influenced  Sengu tables and sofas which refer to the use of materials in the rite of reconstruction of Japanese shrines and the Dudet chair which refers back to the quirky late modernist shapes of the late 60’s. 

As well art directing and designing furniture for Cassina, Patricia continues to create her unique vision for other prestigious manufacturers of authentic design.