Italian designer Patricia Urquiola speaks to TRENDS about her design philosophies

Prolific Italian designer Patricia Urquiola charts her journey, stressing on the importance of designing to fulfill needs.

- Aziz Amin

When did you decide to become a designer? What inspired you?

I wanted to become an architect since I was a child. When I was little, I remember my mother had this great interest for the English designer David Hicks. She bought me a modern functionalist dollhouse with a flat roof. Our playroom had an orange carpet, white furniture and brown-and-white wallpaper — it was perfect. My aunt was a painter and she taught me how to paint. So I never had the fear of doing things, of approaching a white canvas, of playing with objects, dismantling and then building something else, something new.

I studied architecture in Madrid, which had a very traditional curriculum. I then decided to move to Milan where I discovered product designing, thanks to great masters like Achille Castiglioni, Marco Zanuso and Tomas Maldonado who were teaching at the University.

What gives you more creative satisfaction, designing a space or designing a product?

This is subjective project to project. The process is similar but only changes in terms of scale and the professions involved. In the studio, we’re continuously looking to resolve architectural needs with design ideas. Yet, if I have to choose, if I can choose, I would choose designing a product. I think it’s my heritage. I fell in love with design while studying at Politecnico and at that time I understood that it had the same importance as architecture.

Is there a common link that runs through all your designs?