Figure 2. Variations for Baccarat

PATRICIA URQUIOLA

Dirk Schrijvers

Patricia Urquiola (°1961) is a Spanish architect and designer, who studied architecture in Madrid, Spain, before graduating from the Milan Politecnico, Italy in 1989.
She was mentored by Achille Castiglioni, one the masters of Italian industrial design and Vico Magistretti, with whom she designed her first projects. She learned her craft in Italy and opened a studio in Milan, Italy in 2001.

Posted 14 June 2015

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Her work is characterized by rigor and emotion, innovation and mental comfort. Her designs are unconventional, emphatic, and experimental, blending humanist sensibilities and technical expertise, qualities that also are reflected in her work as an architect. Important aspects of her work are the re-invention and adaption of older designs and feminine rounded forms to soften the design.

Figure 6. Shimmer series for Glas Italia


Figure 1. Fjord Seat for Moroso		She has received numerous awards over the years, and in 2011 she was awarded the Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes and the Order of Isabella the Catholic by King Juan Carlos I of Spain. She designed for different companies including Alessi, Baccarat, Bisazza, Driade, Flos, Glas Italia, Kartell, and Rosenthal. Several of her pieces are displayed in museums and her Fjord armchair (Figure 1) is part of MOMA New York's permanent collection.


Glass by Patricia Urquiola In 2012, she designed ‘Variations’, a collection of vases and stemware, in collaboration with the French Cristal brand “Baccarat”. This collection hovers between sophisticated objects and sculptures. Each piece can be interpreted together or individually and the series is made of highly colorful pieces, in which the glass-cutting principles and Baccarat savoir faire have been reinvented. The collection transforms everyday ritual into the art of living, where objects from past and present coexist and combine for mutual magnification. Accented by acid colors, the glasses exude a relaxed, neo-pop vibe. The series of vases and glassware (Figure 2, figure 3, figure 4, figure 5) are a translation of rhythm and composition into functional entities and consist of stackable forms of different diameters and heights. Read more in Article> Object/Product on the Schimmer Table>		Figure 7. Shimmer series for Glas Italia

Figure 3. Variations for Baccarat

Figure 4. Variations for Baccarat

Figure 5. Variations for Baccarat

In 2015, she made the “Shimmer” series for the Italian company “Glas Italia”, although she does not like do design furniture in glass. This series includes low tables, consoles and shelves, each formed from sections of laminated glass with rounded edges and coated in different iridescent colors. The transparent objects are made of glass sheets that are glued together at angles, so the wall-mounted shelves look as if they are formed from four intersecting planes (Figure 6) and the tables are balanced on four legs (Figure 7), with the curved edges touching the ground, while the consoles rest on one upright element (Figure 8) and use a wall for additional support.

These two designs in glass show that, although Patricia Urquiola does not like to work with glass, she is perfectly able to design an attractive object in this material.