As part of europalia españa, the CID is keen to welcome internationally renowned architect and designer Patricia Urquiola. Born in Oviedo in 1961, she studied architecture at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She completed her studies at the Politecnico de Milan, where she was taught by Achille Castiglioni, who appointed her as his assistant lecturer. This meant that as her career continued, she was able to learn from Italy’s grand masters, working in particular with Vico Magistretti and Piero Lissoni. She set up her own studio in 2001. It now has around a hundred employees, working in the fields of product design, interior design and architecture. Its client list is impressively long. But whatever the project may be, the designer’s joyful, colourful and dynamic style always shines through.
The exhibition at the Grand-Hornu will mainly focus on Patricia Urquiola’s design work over the last five years. It will provide a selective overview of her portfolio, covering her industrial and artisan output, as many projects straddle both of these worlds.
The exhibition will examine the approach to researching design and re-design (Latour) that Patricia Urquiola has adopted. Each project embodies a slow, passionate process, a permanent dialogue between the different partners involved. Above and beyond the initial brief, extensive research, memories, intuitive flashes of brilliance, temporal short circuits and experiments all feed into her creative process. Whether the end result uses the most high-tech or the most artisan solution, the research involved in these projects is constantly evolving, always open to redefinition and re-examination. As a result of this, the themes - especially those connected to the materials - remain open as they continue to evolve.
Some older pieces will also feature in the exhibition, having been reimagined and reproduced in new forms. They have been carefully redesigned, often with a greater focus on sustainability.
When it comes to ceramics, the exhibition will explore the reinterpretation of traditional techniques (Capodimonte, Bitossi, Rosenthal) or the use of innovative technology that significantly reduces water consumption (technique continue avec Mutina). Patricia Urquiola has also explored the techniques involved in working with glass. So for example we will see her ideas for new glass pastes produced from the waste generated by traditional production methods (Glas Italia).
Concerns are being raised about concrete production, which produces a huge amount of CO2. Next-generation cements are emerging, and Patricia Urquiola has been studying their properties against the backdrop of her partnership with the Cimento brand. Textiles are another area that Patricia Urquiola has researched extensively, from recycling natural fibres to creating the first fabric made out of 100% ocean-bound PET (Kvadrat) or regenerating super-sturdy modular flooring (Tarkett).
The exhibition will also include chairs made using organic terpolymer injection moulds (Andreu World), surfaces that use resins made from bark and natural waste (Etel and Mater), and recycled waste generated from blocks of marble combined with resin to create hybrid slabs (Budri).
