Patricia Urquiola

Designer We Love: Patricia Urquiola

Website: Studio Urquiola

Quotable Quotes:

"I do not have many desires -- this is very masculine. Often desires transform themselves into frustration."

"Be very passionate and curious! Find a few cultural references and people who can give you guidance to develop your personality. Try to defend your ideas and projects; create your own formula."

"I always think that the project I'm working on will be the best."

Background:

Born in 1961 in Oviedo, Spain

Broad background in academia, studying architecture in Spain and Italy and teaching in Milan and Paris

Developed her first furniture designs in 1991 for Milan's De Padova

See designboom for other background details and an excellent video interview with Ms. Urquiola

What We Love:

This designer has a solid architectural background; you see it in her furniture and product designs. Yet architectural slants to furniture often leave us cold. Patricia Urquiola leavens architectural sensibilities with a welcome sense of humor, great style, and a respect for fabrics and construction materials.

Ms. Urquiola either has the best ideas in the world, or she is fortunate enough to collaborate with the brightest, most passionate entrepreneurs in the furniture and design business today. Case in point: Urquiola's Fat Fat line for B&B Italia. Big idea: what if you had an overstuffed furniture line that said "dive in!" and turned furniture into swimming pools? In the Fat Fat bed (see picture 5 in our Sampler, below), she created a deemphasized, disappearing headboard and came up with a relaxed urban mosh pit that you could float in the room.

We love anything she ever designed for Moroso Spa.

Patricia Urquiola Sampler:

Photo credits: Architonic, Design Dictionary, designboom