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tion, working with bio-plastics and bio-materials
that evolve like natural elements, helping
our well-being.
And yet, our house of the future must be increasingly
self-sufficient and perhaps also
able to produce energy for the exterior, including
for our vehicles.
The future of design has to be ‘smart’ and
‘light’, and it has to be able to adapt to many
functions. There will be surfaces and membranes
that will make our house a healthier
environment.
Consumers are already asking designers and
companies to be more flexible and to offer objects
that change based on new demands and
new, and increasingly the new spaces are becoming
hybrid spaces.
As an architect, when creating spaces, do you
distinguish between home and contract?
I like the public space more than the private
one, although we are now working on several
projects that stem from the latter area. As
always happens, what was not of interest at
the time, has now become so. But public space
has always interested me a lot. Actually,
I got closer to architecture by working with
design companies; this was the first opportunity
I had. My contact with the discipline had
gone awry because of projects of ephemeral
architecture and installations, a humus that
in Milan is quite credible among both these
professions.
An example of this is Kettal, a Spanish exterior
design company that we are working with.
At first, I didn’t want to undertake exterior
design because a reduced level of quality is
involved, as it is understood to represent a
younger brother of interior design. However, I
believe that what is projected for the exterior
has to be achieved with even more interest
and attention than the work undertaken for
the interior; the climatic elements are much
more powerful and the solutions must be
much more articulated because the space to
experiment in is bigger.
What part of the work process do you enjoy
the most in your day to day life?
I am an architect and designer and therefore
I love to work between the different scales of
projects. As a designer, I am always observing
society, looking for new needs and changes.
When the design process begins, I constantly
seek dialogue, both with the client and with
my team. A good designer needs to enjoy profoundly
the entire process, with its challenges,
changes and, most importantly, mistakes.
Mistakes are fundamental, I have learned a
lot from mine.
What is the next thing we will see from Patricia
Urquiola?
Currently, we are working on a number of
hospitality projects, in Italy and abroad. For
example, we are working on three different
projects in Rome and I am very happy about
that. We are about to open two hotels, including
the new Six Senses in Rome; and we
recently started a residential project for the
Palazzo della Famiglia Borghese, a historic
building in the heart of the city.
In addition, soon we will also be opening the
Mandarin Oriental in Ho Chi Minh City which
will be unique. We are also working on a very
interesting hotel in Tokyo.
Over the next few years, we will be opening
more hotels in Europe and the Middle East.
For each of them, our goal is always to propose
a sense of local place. Even when we work
for global corporate chains, our approach is
always to delve into the true genius loci, because
end- customers are increasingly looking
for uniqueness.
FLOS KETTAL