Rosenthal - Landscape/Design: Patricia Urquiola

Landscape/Design: Patricia Urquiola

Patricia Urquiola is one of today’s most famous, internationally popular designers. For the Rosenthal studio-line Patricia Urquiola has designed a dining concept, which meets the standards of ground-breaking product design with its language form and excellent craftsmanship. A new design milestone has been realised following two years of development and in collaboration with Patricia Urquiola, the creative design team and technicians at Rosenthal.

Patricia Urquiola’s design combines western tabletop culture with the oriental tradition of spontaneous and versatile tableware usage. The characteristic design of the dining concept comes to the fore on the plates with their relinquished bordersparticularly well. Different three-dimensional patterns lend the porcelain series an extra dimension and emphasise its high quality. “These patterns are the result of an archaeological-like exploration through our cultural memories. The result is a new interpretation using a modern digitalized language.” The seven different reliefs on porcelain elements are sometimes arranged asymmetrically, sometimes covering the entire surface. Sometimes the pattern breaks out across the rim, reshaping its line.As such, this individual design and formal feature allow versatile alternative combinations. The transparency, a major feature of high quality porcelain products, is particularly evident in Urquiola’s design and reflects Rosenthal’s many years of competence and experience. The fine relief structure emphasises the shimmering effect of the wafer-thin porcelain.

Patricia Urquiola was born in 1961 in Oviedo, Spain and now lives and works in Milan. She studied architecture at the Polytechnics in Madrid and Milan, where she graduated in 1989 after completing her thesis with Achille Castiglioni. Her list of clients reads like the “Who’s Who” of Italian design: B&B Italia, Driade, Molteni, Moroso, Foscarini, etc. The Spanish-born Patricia Urquiola is based in Milan. The Italians affectionately refer to her as “the hurricane”, because she has swept through the design world like a whirlwind, and she currently has a number of projects in the pipeline. Patricia Urquiola finds inspiration in her surroundings: “It can sometimes be an emotional experience, but equally something very simple from everyday life that plants the seed of an idea in my head. I find that the design process is full of surprises – you come up with an idea and throw other ingredients into the mix, but you never know what you will end up with.” Her designs – mainly furniture, but also lights, carpets and rugs, and table objects – are perfectly proportioned and exude comfort and simple elegance.