“Design is a matter of domestication between people and things”
Committed to her profession and to society and probably the most relevant and prolific contemporary Spanish designer
in the world she believes in the need to move towards a circular economy model, as well as towards a more
inclusive society. The gender perspective and sustainability are two constant factors in her work. We speak with
Patricia Urquiola.
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After so many years living outside of Spain,
how do you see the habitat and industrial design
business sector in our country?
From a professional point of view, Italian companies
never say no and always find solutions
to problems. If there is a problem, each one
focuses on one part of the problem and thinks
about how to fix it. However, Spanish design
brands are also making great strides in terms
of innovation. Examples are Andreu World
and Gan Rugs, which work with circular materials,
and are undertaking a lot of research.
You have always been closely linked to the
Salone del Mobile. Milano. With everything
that is happening in the world and how that
also affects fairs, what do think about the recent
edition?
It was very important at that edition of the
Salone to get together again. We had 400,000
people in Milan for design week. It was possible
to talk, meet people, see and touch the
products, view the installations, receive direct
comments from distributors, agents, journalists,
and friends. It was possible to experience
the city, to experience the fair.
There are many challenges, for now and for
the future. How to promote social sustainability,
but also how to promote sustainability
in products and facilities. How to make companies
evolve without losing jobs and how to
add new jobs. How to be able to celebrate products,
give them a better life, more than one
life, help them to be more and more circular.
How to celebrate craftsmanship, technical innovation
and industrial craftsmanship.
There is no single, simple solution; instead,
it is necessary to work with diversity and the
integration of solutions with an evolutionary
attitude.
Do you think that design should have among
their objectives that of making the world a
better place?
Design has the social responsibility that we
face in envisioning and translating the next
way of living, working, moving, socializing in
a complex reality with some similarities and
including many local diversities. In design,
technology and human dynamics are evolving
faster than urban planning and construction
methods; and the ability to communicate and
translate have become part of the process.
I like the reflections made by the Italian philosopher
Emanuele Coccia. Design is a psychic
artifact rather than an architectural one. It is
a matter of domestication between people and
things and how to build intimacy with what we
find next to us.
For me, the design process is a process of comparison,
not of self-reflection, of expanding
knowledge, not of condensation. It is a path of
sharing, of opening up, of researching beyond
ourselves.
The gender perspective has always been very
present in your philosophy. What is the position
of women involved industrial design,
both in Spain and in Italy?
The role of women is something that is going
to have to continue to grow, of course, as happens
with all minorities. When we refer to women,
that concept of minorities always enters
into consideration.. On the other hand, we have
to achieve a more open humanism that dialogues
with the other components that form part
of nature. We must open our vision to a much
broader, more inclusive world. Going back to
women, I recall another person, Gae Aulenti,
a very important designer and woman in Milan.
I found it funny, because she was a woman
GLAS SIMOON