Artistic director of the Italian furniture firm Cassina since 2015, Patricia Urquiola (Oviedo, 1961) is an architect and designer, although she prefers the compound "architectural designer".
Whether vases or sofas, her award-winning creations imagine new ways to inhabit an ever-changing world.
When did you know you would be an architect and designer?
Since she was a teenager, she thought about studying architecture.
When I moved from Madrid to Milan in the middle of my studies, I also discovered
design
at the Faculty of Architecture .
What are the three qualities of good architecture and good design?
Interdisciplinarity.
Today, attention to the evolution of well-being entails a lot of interest in other disciplines.
Like, for example, biophilia.
Diversity.
Reasoning at different project scales.
Diversity of materials, of construction processes, of sustainable modalities, of so many encounters... Courage.
To take risks, make a difference.
Sengu Bold, sofa designed by Patricia Urquiola.
Luca Merly
What is the biggest sin a designer can commit?
The lack of empathy, we must continually nurture our emotional intelligence.
What is the design that you think should not be missing in any house?
An island, the place where you can sit down, read, listen to music, be with others in a relaxed way.
For example, this year at Cassina we are studying Sengu, a system where the maximum quality of the seat is based on a new use of recycled PET.
In which building would he stay to live forever?
I remember that I wanted to hide in one of the pavilions in the gardens of Villa Katsura, in Kyoto.
What book is open on the nightstand?
The future told by plants,
by Barbara Mazzolai, a biologist who tells us about the future that awaits us.
What is the movie you have seen the most times?
I saw La Notte
several times
, by Michelangelo Antonioni.
Sestiere Vases, by Patricia Urquiola.
Luca Merly
And the one that excited you most recently?
Licorice Pizza
, by Paul Thomas Anderson.
The last series you've watched in one go?
Unorthodox
, I saw her recently, I didn't see her when he left, the sound of the language magnetized me.
Your favorite dialogue in a movie?
Any conversation from early Xavier Dolan movies.
What is socially overrated?
Space.
What is the historical event that you most admire?
Galileo's finger pointing to the sky.
If I hadn't been an architect,
I would be… Musicians always envy me.
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