Hasta La Ideas

Patricia Urquiola is easily one of the biggest names in furniture design today, known both for her uncanny design sensibility and her disarmingly effusive personality. Urquiola’s signature aesthetic is that she does not impose one on her work; instead, her consistent output—for the likes of Moroso, B&B Italia, Flos, Foscarini, Kartell, Axor, etc.—is characterized by a strong sense of pattern, form and material.

Luminaire and B&B Italia were kind enough to host the esteemed designer for a lecture at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art on the occasion of NeoCon 2011. We had the opportunity to chat with Urquiola in anticipation of the talk and concurrent exhibition at Luminaire.

Core77: I’m sure most of our readers are somewhat familiar with your work, but how did you get your start?

I completed university at the end of the 80’s, and then I worked for Magistretti and another part of the company that was called De Padova; that was my early work.

And you started your own studio around 2001?

Yes, about 2001… Ten years ago, more or less.

Why did you want to do that?

[It took] a long time, from the moment I ended my studies in architecture and design [to] when I opened my studio was quite a long way of work, because I was working inside a company, and then working with Piero Lissoni in the studio with a community of designers… I was feeling very comfortable.

I thought, because I was raising a family, I could work in a group, with others; I thought that having my own studio could be possibly less comfortable. But then a moment arrived [around] 2000, when I understood that it was really a possibility and a logical reality. In that period, I began to work with Patrizia Moroso and we did two projects that were quite interesting while I was working with Piero Lissoni. But I was working part-time in the studio. And I understood there was a credibility.

But I don’t think it was such a big deal to have my own studio or not to have it. I’m quite sociable, working with others, and I would work well with others in other companies. [At some point], you understand that you need to have your own studio and you decide to open it, but there are many ways to work in this discipline—inside a company, with a group of architects and designers…

When you are young, you don’t know very well if that’s the only way is to be you, [to have] your name and your studio.

Installation at Luminaire Chicago

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