Spanish-born, Milan-based architect Patricia Urquiola doesn’t lack for commissions these days, and, unlike the work of many other high-concept architects, her projects tend to get constructed, envelope-pushing though they sometimes are. And when she’s not imagining covetable creations for contemporary furniture houses — including B&B Italia, Driade and Cassina, where she was named art director in 2015 — Urquiola makes headlines by designing some of the world’s most aesthetically ambitious hotels, such as 2016’s Il Sereno on Lake Como in Lombardy, Italy.
Born in Oviedo, in northern Spain, Urquiola grew up in a family that valued creativity. Everyone in the house, she says, talked and cared about design. She fondly remembers her mother going to London in the 1960s and ’70s and coming back home with a Mary Quant this, a David Hicks that. When it came time to go to university, Urquiola decided that her place was architecture school, first at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and then at the Polytechnic University of Milan, where she completed her design thesis — a felt carpet with a panel that connected to a home’s electricity source and telephone line so that you could plug, say, a table lamp and your phone into it — under the direction of legendary Italian industrial designer Achille Castiglioni.
Today, Urquiola has become a go-to when it comes to avant-garde product, hospitality and retail design, working with such blue-chip international furniture, fashion and hotel companies as Alessi, Baccarat, Salvatore Ferragamo, Kvadrat, Mandarin Oriental, Panerai, Rosenthal, W Hotels and Louis Vuitton, among many others. Her residential projects, meanwhile, though few and far between, stretch from such far-flung locations as Punta del Este, Uruguay, and Melbourne, Australia, to closer-to-home Udine, in northeastern Italy, where she designed the two-story, largely open-plan glass-and-cedar home of Patrizia Moroso, creative director of the family-owned design company that bears her last name.
Over the course of a long-term and highly productive collaboration spanning some 20 years, Urquiola has created dozens and dozens of Moroso-branded products. A chair from her 2001 Fjord line of seating, tables and poufs for the company sits in the collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and Moroso debuted (love me) Tender, her modular sofa system upholstered in jersey, during Milan’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile in April of 2014.
Find Patricia Urquiola furniture on 1stDibs.
Bittossi Ceramic Merlate Vase by Patricia Urquiola in STOCK
By Patricia Urquiola
Located in New York, NY
All Bitossi ceramics are entirely handmade by our artisans at every stage of the production process. Merlate A series of micro-architectures distinguished by their irregular, textur...
Ceramic
Bittossi Ceramic Merlate Vase by Patricia Urquiola in STOCK
By Patricia Urquiola
Located in New York, NY
All Bitossi ceramics are entirely handmade by our artisans at every stage of the production process. Merlate A series of micro-architectures distinguished by their irregular, textur...
Ceramic
Bittossi Ceramic Merlate Vase by Patricia Urquiola in STOCK
By Patricia Urquiola
Located in New York, NY
All Bitossi ceramics are entirely handmade by our artisans at every stage of the production process. Merlate A series of micro-architectures distinguished by their irregular, textur...
Ceramic
Bittossi Ceramic Merlate Vase by Patricia Urquiola in STOCK
By Patricia Urquiola
Located in New York, NY
All Bitossi ceramics are entirely handmade by our artisans at every stage of the production process. Merlate A series of micro-architectures distinguished by their irregular, textur...
Ceramic
$1,578 / set
H 19.69 in Dm 8.67 in
Set/3 Vases, Ceramic Vases, White, Handmade in Portugal by Lusitanus Home
By Greenapple
Located in Lisboa, PT
Nebula Vases, Lusitanus Home Collection, Handcrafted in Portugal - Europe by Lusitanus Home. This beautiful set includes three waterproof ceramic vases, perfect to be displayed to...
Ceramic
$605 / item
H 11.82 in W 9.85 in D 4.73 in
Cucumber Ceramic Flower Vase, by Martine Bedin from Memphis Milano
By Memphis Group, Martine Bedin, Memphis Milano
Located in La Morra, Cuneo
The Cucumber flower vase was originally designed by Martine Bedin in 1985 for Memphis. An object not thought for simple use but for a long contemplation, the ceramic vase is a true c...
Ceramic
$500 / item
H 3.5 in Dm 6.5 in
In-stock, White Porcelain Kawa Bowl, Leather Cast Ceramic Vessel, organic form
By Luft Tanaka
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Tactile and organic small porcelain bowl with leather textured exterior surface and a smooth glazed interior. The Kawa Bowls are expressive and lively. With their fluid forms and pronounced leather texture, they demonstrate the unique and beautiful qualities of the unusual technique behind the Kawa Series. Due to the production process, each item is one-of-a-kind. Food-safe and dishwasher-safe. Measures: 6.5" diameter x 3.5" height The Kawa Series is a collection of porcelain objects that are made by casting liquid clay into sewn leather molds. The precarious and beautifully-involved process is completely unique to Luft Tanaka Studio...
Ceramic, Porcelain, Clay
$980 / item
H 11.42 in W 7.09 in D 7.09 in
Orinoco Ceramic Vase, by Masanori Umeda from Memphis Milano
By Memphis Group, Masanori Umeda, Memphis Milano
Located in La Morra, Cuneo
Orinoco Vase in ceramic, was originally designed in 1983 by Masanori Umeda. Was born in 1941 at Kanagawa in Japan. He obtained his diploma from the Kuwasawa School of Design in Tok...
Ceramic
$446Sale Price / set|50% Off
H 4.73 in Dm 14.18 in
Set/5 Ceramic Vases & Bowl, Green, Handmade in Portugal by Lusitanus Home
By Greenapple, Lusitanus Home
Located in Lisboa, PT
Set/5 Ceramic Vases and Bowl, White & Green, Lusitanus Home Collection, Handcrafted in Portugal - Europe by Lusitanus Home. This beautiful set includes four waterproof ceramic v...
Ceramic
1930s English Ceramic Ribbed Mantle Vase
Located in Stamford, CT
1930s unglazed ceramic mantle vase. Overall matte finish. Vase interior is a jade green color.
Ironstone
Artisanal Solid White Marble Minimalist Vase, Wide, in Stock
Located in West Hollywood, CA
White marble vase This artisanal home decor vase was hand cut Blanco Bego white marble from Morelos, Mexico. Each piece is hand carved by expert artisans and craftsmen following f...
Marble
Artisanal Solid Black Marble Minimalist Vase, Wide, in Stock
Located in West Hollywood, CA
This artisanal home decor vase was hand cut Negro Monterrey black marble from Neuvo Leon, Mexico. Each piece is hand carved by expert artisans and craftsmen following fair trade prac...
Marble
White 1920s Emilie Tessier Ceramic Vase
Located in London, GB
A striking example of 1920s French studio pottery, this white Emilie Tessier ceramic vase brings luxury and sculptural texture to any interior. The generous rounded body is framed by...
Ceramic
$2,060 / item
H 25.99 in Dm 11.82 in
Victoria Ceramic Flower Vase, by Marco Zanini from Memphis Milano
By Marco Zanini, Memphis Group, Memphis Milano
Located in La Morra, Cuneo
Victoria Flower vase in ceramic with ceramic flower, was originally designed in 1982 by Marco Zanini for Memphis Milano. Marco Zanini was born in Trento in 1954. He graduated in ar...
Ceramic
$580
H 8.47 in Dm 4.34 in
Mid-Century Ceramic Vase by Romacrea, Italy, 1960s - Era Fratelli Fanciullacci
By Fratelli Fanciullacci
Located in Camblanes et Meynac, FR
Mid-Century Italian Ceramic Vase by Romacrea, 1960s 1960s ceramic vide-poche by the well-known Roman studio Romacrea, featuring a soft pink-mauve engobe and a vibrant stylized chara...
Ceramic
Ceramic Vase by Albert Green
Located in Dallas, TX
A potter and painter, Albert Green (1914 - 1994) earned an international reputation for his ceramics, stoneware, and canvases. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he studie...
Ceramic
Set of 4 Large Kartell Jelly Bowls in Crystal by Patricia Urquiola
By Patricia Urquiola, Kartell
Located in Brooklyn, NY
The Jelly bowls are part of a new series of design items through which Kartell, in its continuous search for new tactile and aesthetic effects, once again demonstrates its technologi...
Crystal