Patricia Urquiola

According to Design Essentia Magazine, Urquiola and Alberto Zontone founded Studio Urquiola in 2001.⁴

According to Design Essentia Magazine, Patricia Urquiola is a Spanish architect and designer based in Milan.^4,5,6 According to Design Essentia Magazine, Studio Urquiola works across product design, architecture, art direction and strategy consulting.⁴ According to Design Essentia Magazine, her architecture practice includes hotels, retail spaces, residences and exhibitions.⁴

According to Design Essentia Magazine, she has been creative director of Cassina since 2015.⁴ According to Design Essentia Magazine, her design clients include Moroso, Flos, Haworth and Cassina.^4,7 According to Design Essentia Magazine, Urquiola completed her graduation thesis project with Castiglioni on a smart rug design.⁴

According to Design Essentia Magazine, Urquiola incorporates sustainable elements, including recycled PET fibers gathered from the ocean, into furniture padding.⁴ According to Patricia Urquiola, she designed private spaces for an Elle Decor Grand Hotel installation at Palazzo Morando.⁸ According to Elle Decor Italia, the Elle Decor Grand Hotel installation at Palazzo Morando was titled 'Stanzas', referencing Gertrude Stein's 1929 poetry collection 'Stanzas in Meditation'.⁸

According to Embassy of Spain in Italy, she received the Tempietto Bramante Prize, awarded through the Spanish Embassy in Italy.² According to Agenzia ANSA, “After studying at the Milan Polytechnic, where she graduated with Achille Castiglioni, she worked with Vico Magistretti and as head of design at Lissoni Associati”.² According to Agenzia ANSA, Elle Deco named her Designer of the Year in 2003, and Wallpaper did so in 2005.²

According to ANSA, Urquiola's work has been published in magazines including AD, Wallpaper and Elle.² According to Interni Magazine, the Philadelphia Museum of Art mounted an exhibition, Between Craft and Industry, of her principal works.⁷ According to Interni Magazine, the Philadelphia Museum of Art presented an exhibition of Urquiola’s work in products, interiors and spaces.⁷ According to Interni Magazine, that collection is named for the earthquake that struck Emilia in May 2012.⁷

According to BMW Group PressClub, a BMW presentation project involving Urquiola included a 322-square-metre patterned floor.⁵ According to BMW Group PressClub, the BMW presentation space combined terrazzo flooring with three-dimensional printing.⁵ According to BMW Group, the BMW collaboration involved a 322-square-metre flooring surface produced with 3D-printing technology and terrazzo.⁵ According to BMW Group PressClub, Urquiola collaborated with BMW on a project centered on the BMW Concept M8 Gran Coupe.⁵

Urquiola said she chose to study in Madrid because the city was extremely vibrant at that moment.⁴ She has said Milan Politecnico classes were experimental and mixed architecture with design.⁴ She has said her thesis with Castiglioni was a low-voltage rug that could power a phone and a lamp.⁴

According to Patricia Urquiola, Urquiola described using recycled PET fibre in cushion padding for environmental reasons.⁴ According to Patricia Urquiola, Urquiola described her Elle Decor Grand Hotel room design as avoiding a repetitive model-room approach.⁸ She states that her textile work involves research into durability and resilience.⁹

She co-curated a Milan homage to Achille Castiglioni with Federica Sala and said his recorded voice, not her intervention, led visitors.⁶ According to Patricia Urquiola, Urquiola uses the concept of the rhizome to explain multidimensional connections across design and exhibition projects.⁶ According to Artribune, Artribune links the exhibition layout to her recurring rhizome idea, drawn from Deleuze and Guattari and discussed in a Sarzana Festival della Mente lecture.⁶ According to Patricia Urquiola, Urquiola has discussed the rhizome as a concept informing her design thinking.^6,10