Patricia Urquiola

(1961)
architect - designer

Patricia Urquiola was born in Oviedo, a city which is situated in the North of Spain. She studied first in Madrid and subsequently in Italy where in 1989 she graduated from the Milan Polytechnic with her thesis supervised by the internationally renowned designer and architect Achille Castiglioni. She is one of the most important figures of modern Italian design even though from a sociocultural point of view she feels also very attached to the Spanish tradition.

From 1990 to 1992 she taught in the role of assistant professor at the Milan Polytechnic, and at the Ensci (Ecole nationale supérieure de création industrielle) in Paris, France. During that period she also started partnership with the Italian design company Maddalena De Padova where she met the internationally renowned designer Vico Magistretti with whom she designed the chair Flower, the Loom Sofa, and the horizontal chair Chaise Longue. Like Achille Castiglioni, Vico Magistretti noticed her talent and advised her to aspire to achieve the highest professional standards at a worldwide level.

From 1993 to 1996 she worked in a design workshop that she had initiated with other designers where she was involved in architectural planning of buildings, interior design, and exhibition design. In 1998 she started partnership with the firm Moroso and created elegant upholstered pieces of furniture that people found irresistible.

Patricia Urquiola while working in harmony with the highest academic standards, also takes into consideration the impact that her products have on the vast public who in the in the showrooms respond to their emotional signals and their functional form, by feeling the urge to touch them.

She focuses on the design of exchangeable units without using modular elements, and successfully creates environments designed to encourage positive feelings and company. From 1996 she is a coordinator of the design group of the company Lissoni Associati.

Her professional activity is based on countless work partnerships with design and architecture companies of worldwide importance like her teachers Achille Castiglioni e Vico Magistretti had wished.

Among the companies with whom she undertakes industrial design projects are:

- Moroso
- Lissoni Associati
- Agape
- Alessi
- B&B
- De Padova
- De Vecchi
- Driade
- Foscarini
- Kartell
- MDF
- Molteni
- San Lorenzo

Among the companies with whom she undertakes architectural projects are:

- Moroso
- Knoll
- Marks and Spencer (United Kingdom)
- Molteni
- Sand (Denmark)
- Somma
- Roberto Torretta (Spain)

Patricia Urquiola

Industrial design

Italian design