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Three questions to: Patricia Urquiola

Patricia Urquiola has designed three new textiles for Kvadrat: The faux-uni upholstery fabrics "Relate" and "Reflect" and the curtain fabric "Lumo" in woven twill, which offers a particularly dense quality. In this interview she explains her concept to us.

12/1/2020

Anna Moldenhauer: Patricia, why did you decide to rethink the concept of mottled looks for your new textiles for Kvadrat?

Patricia Urquiola: I would describe the new textiles I designed for Kvadrat as deliberately simple. Yet they all have an interesting story to tell about the weave and the material. With "Relate" and "Reflect", I wanted to play with colours and rethink the concept of melange. I chose to pair shades that are very close in the colour scale to give much more volume to the texture, which results in a monochromatic effect. With Lumo, we applied this idea of ‘hyper-mélange’ to a curtain, made with two yarns that each unite two hues twisted together. A deep colour vibrancy, which is enhanced by the fact that it is double-sided.

Your designs for Kvadrat are always characterised by a deep dynamic, both in colour and in the composition of the material. Why is this "movement" in the design of the textiles important to you?

Patricia Urquiola: That is exactly what interests me the most: fabrics have this temporality inside; they communicate tactile feelings and they express time as well. In the moment you touch a textile, it immediately reacts and creates a relationship with the user. In the near future, i am dreaming of a world, in which we will use bio-technologies for fabrics that are thought and designed like living membranes. I wish there will be smart surfaces, fabrics and curtains with sensors, more and more performative and able to make the place we inhabit a better place.

Why have you made it an aim to match the feel of natural fibres in the new "Relate", "Reflect" and "Lumo" fabrics?

Patricia Urquiola: As a designer and architect, my aim is to create a gentle relationship with our tools for living and this applies to fabrics, too. "Reflect" is the ‘upcycled’ version and "Relate" is the contract version with fire-proof performance. They are twin collections, looking exactly the same but I really wanted to work with Kvadrat on recycled polyester for "Reflect": this is the proof that we can guarantee a soft hand, even with a recycled fibre.