Patricia Urquiola
PATRICIA URQUIOLA was born in Oviedo, Spain in 1961 and although Spanish by birth has been based in Milan for over twenty years. She works for the most prestigious lighting and furniture companies and is one of the few successful female designers in Italy. Heavily influenced by her mentor Achille Castiglioni she also cites Maddalena De Padova and Patrizia Moroso as having a decisive influence on her career (she was a project manager in De Padova's studio in the early 1990s where she also learned from Vico Magistretti who directed the studio at the time).
In the mid 1990's URQUIOLA became head of Piero Lissoni's 'Lissoni Associati' before establishing her own studio in 1998. Since doing she she has worked extensively with Moroso and B&B Italia - creating designs to huge acclaim by the press and is now regarded as one of the leading lights of the contemporary interior design scene. Her designs are fresh, modern and elegant and, though functional, always possess a distinctive sensuality. She prefers gentle forms to hard edges - a prime example being the Fjord collection for Moroso, for which she was awarded the Best System Award in 2003 at the International Furniture Fair, Cologne.
URQUIOLA was awarded the Designer of the Year Award by the Elle International Design Awards in 2004 and continues to work with European manufacturers such as Kartell (T Table), Foscarini (Caboche Light Collection) and Alessi (Orloff Bowl).
