Milan-based furniture designer and architect Patricia Urquiola puts unique personal touches on her functional, futuristic designs. When she created a white armchair (the “Smock chair“) for furniture store Moroso in 2006, she incorporated a smock, a bib-like garment that goes over clothes, worn by her first child. Her other work has included a Louis Vuitton purse that also acts as a portable stool, the W Hotel’s whimsical interiors on Puerto Rico’s Vieques island, and brightly colored, patterned Spanish rugs woven in India for Gandia Blasco. “I’m not interested in the old meanings of what a bed, a sofa, or a bath is; I am only concerned with new and more sophisticated ways of living,” she told Elle Décor, referring to her work.
Urquiola’s first solo exhibition exhibition recently opened at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “Patricia Urquiola: Between Craft and Industry,” spotlights the furniture designer’s creative process and showcases pieces such as her acclaimed “Antibodi” Chaise (shown above), a chair that blossoms with flower petals arranged in a cellular formation, and her cozy Husk Armchair, a new take on the papasan (the disc-shaped, cushioned chair). Click through to preview.
“Patricia Urquiola: Between Craft and Industry,” is on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through March 4, 2018.
