MEETING…PATRICIA URQUIOLA
ORIENTAL
BEAUTY
Words: Neena Dhillon
Portrait: Alessandro Paderni Hotel Photography: Courtesy of Mandarin Oriental
A designer’s work is never done, Sleeper discovers,
while waiting for Patricia Urquiola at the newly
opened Mandarin Oriental, Barcelona.
Having committed the best part of three years the designer with a wry smile. “But then I’ve
to crafting the interiors of this 98-room luxury always liked testing myself.”
property found in an enviable location on the She may not yet be a hospitality design
exclusive Passeig de Gràcia, Urquiola is back luminary but Spanish-born Urquiola has
for an intensive series of meetings to oversee impressive credentials in architecture,
the final touches of her distinctive design installation and products. Having graduated
vision. from the Politecnico di Milano as an architect,
She sinks, exhausted, into an elegant white where she inherited her deep passion for
custom-made leather chair at the hotel’s design from mentor Achille Castiglioni,
restaurant/lounge Blanc and takes a contented she co-managed De Padova’s product
look around before ordering a green tea. development office before leading Piero
Turning to husband Alberto Zontone, who Lissoni’s team for five years.
also forms part of the Studio Urquiola team, But it was only after her first marriage
she checks whether there will be a break in her ended that her career really began to flourish
schedule to relax in the spa she has created, in a period when she had “nothing to lose”.
but is reliably informed there’s a dinner Setting up her own studio in Milan in 2001,
engagement for which to prepare. Shrugging she has since gone on to create award-
nonchalantly, she promises herself some winning products with the likes of B&B Italia,
much-needed ‘me-time’ in the morning before Bisazza, Moroso and Alessi, while completing
jetting back to her studio base in Milan. architectural projects for Roberto Torretta,
Covering more than 17,000m
2
and costing Valentino and Max Mara. Named Furniture
€150m this highly anticipated project Designer of the Year by Wallpaper* in 2006,
represents both Mandarin Oriental Hotel she even has pieces featured in the permanent
Group’s first foray into Spain and Urquiola’s collection at MOMA in New York.
first full-scale hospitality commission. “I Recalling how she made the leap into hotel
should have started with a small boutique design, Urquiola candidly explains that her
hotel, not a huge investment like this,” admits brother-in-law, an architect by profession,
028 MARCH / APRIL 2010 WWW.SLEEPERMAGAZINE.COM WWW.SLEEPERMAGAZINE.COM MARCH / APRIL 2010
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