Patricia Urquiola, Cassina Art Director. Photo: Valentina Sommariva
On March 16, high-end Italian design brand Cassina unveiled its first store in the UAE. Located within a villa in Dubai’s Jumeirah Street, the new space spans over 750 square meters, and for its opening, Patricia Urquiola, Cassina Art Director, touched down in the city for a special conversation with Vogue Arabia. Below, the décor pro shares her thoughts about Cassina’s best creations, its rich history, and the pieces every interior enthusiast must keep their eyes open for.
Heavily awarded and celebrated designer. What would you say is your biggest achievement so far?
Achievements for me… I think there are people who are still coming to the studio to say ‘We’ve got this kind of new research you’ve never worked with, but we know you are going to get into.’ They see in me the humility and the energy of being experimental, and being really open to get into new arguments. This kind of thing is beautiful. It means that the path we created with someone is evolving. We have this humility and an open mind to get into new problems with a lot of intention and passion. We are ready to try new colors, materials, sustainability. And Cassina has this strong approach, always enquiring.
How would you describe your approach to design and your signature style? Do you have like one signature style?
No, I don’t have. Those definitions are much sweeter and nicer when others say it. My culture was more Spanish when I was very young, and then moved more into Italian culture. Through Italian culture, I connected with the world for all these things. I am still a person to whom this hybrid factor is of value. Today, we understand this value more than when I was younger. But it’s been a constant in me and helped me a lot to evolve. Do not be afraid of the hybrid factor.
Chaise longue à reglage continu designed by Le Corbusier P.Jeanneret and C.Perriand. Photo: Valentina Sommariva
Do you have a favorite product from all the years?
No. Each day, I could say a different one. It’s like a favorite book. When you are young, there are certain books that are very important. But in this part of my life, I am focused in an argument or in another thing, and that is important in this moment. At this moment, I am focused on preparing an exhibition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cassina iMaestri Collection. ‘Echoes, 50 years of iMaestri’ is curated with Federica Sala and will be at Palazzo Broggi in Milan from the 17th -21st of April. The exhibit will recount the unique and consolidated method of authentically editing the great classics with a culture-oriented approach, a vision towards the future and endless passion. So the focus is on introducing products from masters from the past like Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand… they became part of the collection in Cassina. They have a value in our path. 50 years ago Cassina began to do it with a method, working in contemporary projects with important contemporary designers, but at the same time introducing voices from masters with their own pieces. And then, those pieces grew up with the company. It was important to give value to that, to understand and at the end, those values that came from the past, they are not stuck. The dynamic has changed, and it’s something that is giving you richness and energy.
What is the design philosophy behind Cassina’s latest collection, ‘The Cassina Perspective’?
Over the last five years, we’ve been working on this. We are really into the philosophy of ‘The Cassina Perspective’. When you’ve got this concept of perspective, it is something that you can always enlarge and you can move forward. And it’s very important. We began looking at what the possibilities of the company were, and how its relation was with contemporary pieces and all the foundations from all the masters working with us. Looking at all this and blending all the elements together, we are working with a perspective that is open to the concept of time, the day and night.
For example, working with a perspective, looking to outdoor spaces. Using all the knowledge that we got from pieces done for outdoor places, how they are connected with elements of nature like water and sand. Cassina Pro is a thought of a home not like a private place anymore, but more like the center of a crossover of relations through private and public, because the pandemic accelerated that side.
Why did you choose Virgil Abloh?
A few years ago, I saw his exhibition in Chicago at the Museum of Modern Art. At the same time, there was a space for Louis Vuitton. He did it with a very interesting energy. I said we have to find a way to speak with him. And I asked him to do a real one piece, not just taking something from our heritage and providing it a new look. This modular black piece looks very simple, but it’s much less simple than it looks. It looks quite severe and solid, you touch it and it’s very soft. It marks the beginning of modular imagination, and can be interpreted in different ways.
Cassina’s Modular imagination designed by Virgil Abloh
Back to The Cassina Perspective. You collaborated with several designers for this collection. Any favorite?
No, I think we are a family of different voices, and certain voices are really strong. My role is more to have the respect to put them together, to make them interactive with all the other voices from the foundations, and to work with a light touch. We have the good luck to have the density and the complexity of all these strong voices. Sometimes they are from a very young name, but at the end the challenge is how to place two in a single space, a younger piece and a foundation piece which is stronger than different voices. This is the kind of orchestral situation I work with. I think Cassina had this vocation from always.
What does fashion mean for Cassina?
I think we have to understand that each platform of research, each dominion of work, has to share all the boundaries with all the other research fields, be it fashion, botanics, engineering, technological research, architecture or graphic research. We are going to reach our path if we have more and more conversations.
What is it about Cassina craftsmanship that sets it apart from everyone in the industry? So how important is craftsmanship for Cassina?
It is long legacy, a way of proposing two arguments. The two pillars of the company are quality and durability. The way to get your own culture through these arguments, you need to have this approach. As you were saying, an artisan’s heart must be always strongly interconnected with another heart, which is the industrial one. In the moment you find a way to get into series. Sometimes there are little series or they are larger series. You need to understand how to put into a piece, which is artisan and a heart, which is intelligently industrial, and both evolve. It’s very interesting to understand that characteristic. We are doing a lot of thinking about what it means for us to industrialize something in a new way, in terms of looking at the future with a new point of view. It cannot always be in the same way. There’s no formula.
Everyone is talking about NFT’s. Are you into NFT?
The company is into communication already. For the past five or six years, we’ve done not just photos, but we have also worked with digital artists and some NFTs. This was before they were calling them NFTs, and we are in good relation with young artists. Now we are very proud as they are doing fantastic work just for communicating into the net.
How does the Cassina of today pay homage to its Italian heritage and the legacy of Cesare and Umberto Cassina?
This is the 50th anniversary of us paying homage to Maestri, and I think it’s a very interesting moment to give value to this decision that the family had in the seventies, to make interactive contemporary designs from the period with pieces of masters of the past and introduced them into today. In the seventies, 50 years ago, the company decided to explore pieces that explores designers from that period. I think the company never lost that attitude to understand that this research goes connected with anything which is done with the contemporary designers from each decade. And this dialogue is given a kind of energy and perspective in the last years for us and we are really enriched.
Cassina hopes to rethink the future of design with Cassina Lab. Can you talk a bit more about that? Any specific examples.
As I was saying, working with universities, working with all our suppliers and really creating a very systemic research in many ways. The Ministry of Economic Development created the special register of historical brands of national interest and Cassina is in this registry. So it’s the first company of design but at the same time, it is also for the future because Cassina was among the 100 Italian Circular Economy Stories, one of which was done by the energy company in Italy. And so it’s nice that it’s both looking back but also looking ahead in the future.
Now that Cassina flagship landed in Dubai, can we expect a Middle East collaboration?
Dubai is our first mono-brand space in the region that we opened in partnership with Vivium Holding, and we would like to expand our presence as many things are happening here. Of course, we are always searching and looking for interesting creatives. So if we can find a collaboration here in the Middle East, we are super open to it.
Cassina showroom in Dubai. Photo: Valentina Sommariva
What is the ideal Cassina home?
This showroom! You will see a dialogue in between pieces which are from different voices and arguments. I believe a lot in harmony, in this ambition to really make dialogue strong and spotlight different voices.
As someone who has taught in various universities, what is a piece of advice you always give to young designers?
I never gave the same advice because I think there is no one piece you can stick to. Even in advice, you have to be evolving. I think, the younger generation has in front of it a future that is changing many factors. But in some way, we have more knowledge of what can go wrong. They have a lot of space to recreate the laws or the elements, so they become good ancestors.
What’s next?
We are preparing something special but we can’t reveal yet! Rendezvous at the Salone de Mobile!
