Meta-Morphosa: Patricia Urquiola is the companion book to the Spanish designer's solo exhibition at CID Grand-Hornu in Belgium, staged as part of the Europalia España festival. It surveys the past five years of research from her Milan studio, in English and French.
About This Book
Transformation is the organising idea. At a moment when climate change and artificial intelligence are reshaping how things are made and how they are judged, Urquiola's studio asks how materials, forms and our sense of beauty might change with them. Its answer is a body of work that is restless and hybrid—functional objects shown beside speculative projects, and trials of new materials set in unexpected pairings.
The result is less a product catalogue than a case for mutation as an aesthetic: design that is adaptable, playful and willing to look unfamiliar. Texts by Emanuele Coccia, Marie Pok and Anatxu Zabalbeascoa frame the work, alongside 85 colour illustrations.
Key Features
- Accompanies Studio Patricia Urquiola's solo exhibition at CID Grand-Hornu
- Five years of the studio's research, from everyday objects to visionary projects
- Experiments with innovative materials and unlikely combinations
- Engages directly with climate change, AI and shifting ideas of beauty
- Essays by Emanuele Coccia, Marie Pok and Anatxu Zabalbeascoa
- 85 colour illustrations
What You'll Discover
- How a studio working for Cassina, Flos, Kvadrat and Louis Vuitton approaches sustainability
- Why transformation, rather than permanence, drives the studio's recent work
- The role of material experimentation in Urquiola's design process
- A new aesthetic built on formal and cultural mutation
About the Author
Patricia Urquiola was born in Oviedo, Spain, and trained in architecture at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She founded her own studio in Milan in 2001, working across architecture, product design, installations, art direction and strategy, and has been art director of Cassina since 2015. Her clients include Flos, Moroso, Kettal, Kvadrat, GAN, Haworth, BMW, Loewe and Missoni, and her architectural projects include the Mandarin Oriental in Barcelona, Das Stue in Berlin and Il Sereno on Lake Como. Her honours include Spain's Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts and membership of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Dimensions: 210 × 260 mm
- Pages: 176
- Language: English and French
- ISBN: 9789058567529
- Publisher: Pelckmans
Perfect For: industrial and product designers, interior designers, students of material innovation, and anyone following Patricia Urquiola's work.