Patricia Urquiola: a wind of poetry in contemporary design

Patricia Urquiola, a familiar name to contemporary design fans. This 61-year-old Spanish architect and designer has an exemplary career and a CV filled with collaborations with the greatest contemporary furniture editors: Alessi, Antares-Flos, Artelano, Boffi, Cappellini, Cassina, Kartell, BetB, ... As proof of his fame, his creations are part of the permanent collections of MoMA. In 2013, I had the opportunity to visit in Lyon the very beautiful exhibition dedicated to the 60 years of the Italian house Moroso, entitled: sguardo laterale. Moroso, a research between Decorative Arts and Design. I had then discovered the intense collaboration between the Iberian designer and the Italian publisher. This post looks back at Patricia Urquiola's landmark creations, including her fertile collaboration with Moroso.

Patricia Urquiola was born in 1961 in Oviedo, Spain. She studied architecture at the Faculty of Madrid and then moved to Milan where she focused on design. She studied at the Polytechnic of Milan. Unusually, she has the privilege of defending her thesis under the direction of Achille Castiglioni, considered one of the greatest Italian designers of the 20th century. In an interview for the publisher Flos, Patricia Urquiola explains, "Castiglioni, on the other hand, taught me the importance of design at a time when I still believed that architecture was a higher art - as well as the pleasure of imagining objects. The irony, the fun, the fact that you don't take yourself too seriously even though you take what you do very seriously."

In the early 1990s, Patricia Uquiola began her career as a development manager at the Italian publisher De Padova. An extraordinary opportunity that led her to cross paths with another great personality of Italian design: Vico Magistretti. With the latter, she publishes her 1^er object, the Flower chair.

Represented for her talent, Patricia Urquiola was appointed in 1996 as director of the design department of designer Piero Lissoni's famous Lissoni Associati agency, which allowed her to work on projects with the most important Italian furniture publishers. At the same time, she continued her career as a freelance designer and signed products for BetB, Bosa, De Vecchi, Fasem, Kartell, Liv'it, MDF, Molteni and C., Moroso and Tronconi.

In 2001, Patricia Urquiola asserted her independence and created her own design studio. Her fame grew, she continued to work for major houses and in 2003 she was crowned best Designer of the Year by Elle Déco magazine; in 2005, it was the famous decorating press magazine Wallpaper that awarded her this title.

How would you define the style of Patricia Urquiola? A mixture of softness and exuberance, a concern for ornamentation, a great sense of poetry that makes her choose organic forms, all combined with refinement and sensuality. So it is with her superb chaise longue and the armchairs of the Antibodi series for Moroso. She can also be said to combine the best of artisanal techniques, such as braiding, within the framework of industrial production.

Patricia Urquiola has worked extensively with organic style, revisiting elements of nature that she incorporates into her furniture pieces with always a poetic note. In 2013, for example, she created for Kartell the Foliage collection, a range including a 2-seater sofa as well as an armchair with a natural and poetic spirit. Very comfortable seats, decorated with stitching in leaf patterns. At the base of the seats, a lacquered metal structure reminiscent of a branch.

Like some of the great design talents, Patricia Urquiola knows how to navigate all styles. And this is perhaps one of her great strengths: open to the world, she has this ability to move from one universe to another, mixing influences. So what do the fantastic woven garden chair Crinoline (at BetB Italia) and the famous Comback chair for Kartell have in common? Not much, except for their designer's cheeky talent for designing one-of-a-kind pieces!

Comfortable composing with very different styles, Patricia Urquiola is also capable of designing objects other than furniture. She thus collaborates with Foscarini or Flos to design classy lighting fixtures and still for Kartell, she signs the Jellies Family dinnerware collection.

With a great creative sense, Patricia Urquiola is a sure bet in contemporary design. The pieces she has designed have become "Must haves" for anyone who wants to bring modern, cheerful and often warm design into their home. Since September 2015, she has been the artistic director of Italian publisher Cassina.

François Boutard