Hurricane dame

Urquiola has designed a collection that is practical and accessible.
[More Images]

In Beirut to celebrate the Middle East launch of one of her latest creations, Patricia Urquiola spoke to Selina Denman about practical products – and why having a design style is just plain ‘stupid’.

The Italians have fondly nicknamed her ‘the hurricane’ because of the force with which she careered onto the design scene, and when she talks – forcefully, fervently, swerving from topic to topic, barely stopping for breath as she flits from Spanish to English to French and back again – the moniker seems fitting.

Patricia Urquiola is one of the few women to have made a name for themselves in the male-dominated world of product design.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

Born in Oviedo in Spain, Urquiola attended Madrid Polytechnic’s faculty of architecture, graduating in 1989 after completing a thesis with Achille Castiglioni.

But in built-up city like Milan, there was far more scope for designing products than buildings, and Urquiola went on to work with leading companies such as Alessi, B&B Italia, Flos, Kartell, Molteni&C, Moroso, Paola Lenti, Rosenthal, Kettal and Foscarini.

One of her more recent collaborations was with Axor, the high-end ‘designer’ arm of German sanitaryware company, Hansgrohe.

The fruit of this partnership is the Axor Urquiola collection, which includes bath mixers, wash basins, a bath tub, accessories and a partition.

The new bathroom is infused with intimacy and human intuition, a self-proclaimed “space for normal life”.

Boundaries between the bedroom and bathroom have been completely broken down and the space is divided by a single, multi-functional partition that can act as a divider, heater and mirror.

Taps are asymmetrical, sensual and sleek. Two sinks are set on opposite sides of the room – because who wants to watch their partner brushing their teeth? Sinks are reminiscent of a bucket, to encourage people to think about how much water they are using; two baths are set side by side, each designed for one person – after all, why waste the water if you normally bathe alone?

Perhaps unusually for a designer producing at the top end of the scale, Urquiola has created a collection of products that can be slotted into any environment. “The things you put in your house will live with other layers. There will always be other layers that existed before,” she commented.

In Beirut to celebrate the official Middle East launch of the Axor Urquiola collection, Patricia Urquiola spoke exclusively to CID about the meaning of luxury, and her lack of goals.