Patricia Urquiola
Patricia Urquiola is an internationally renowned Spanish architect and interior designer currently based in Milan, Italy. With her unconventional style, she managed to achieve both emphatic and balanced effect with all of her works. With several awards in her collection, Patricia Urquiola is one of the most honoured designers out there.
Some of the recognitions she is a proud owner of include “Designer of the Decade” title from the Home and Häuser magazines, and “Designer of the Year” from Wallpaper, Ad Spain, Elle Decor International and Architektur und Wohnen Magazine.
When it comes to the most memorable parts of this designer’s career, we have to mention her encounter with Maddalena de Padova in 1990, her collaboration with Piero Lissoni between 1996 and 2000, as well as her partnership with Patrizia Moroso ever since 1998. The collaboration eventually led to the design of the iconic Step Sofa.
Designs
The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Barcelona is one of many fascinating architectural projects Patricia Urquiola has worked on. The Lud’o Lounge chair she designed for Cappellini is one of the projects we’ll forever thank this Spanish designer. The chair is both revolutionary in style and beyond comfortable, allowing you to have it in your home regardless of the style you’re going for.
The Caboche lamps are another highlight of Patricia’s work. The luxurious chandelier, floor lamp, and wall lamp are a part of the fascinating project Urquiola did for Foscarini.
Last, but certainly not least, the Crinoline collection of outdoor furniture she designed for B&B Italia. Those are patio – but not only – armchairs looking like pieces of art.
Kelly Hoppen
This South African-born multi-award winning British designer is one of the most prominent designers of her generation. Kelly Hoppen began her career when she was only 16 years old, designing a family friend’s kitchen.
The fact that she designed for David and Victoria Beckham’s is proof enough she’s worthy of being on this list of iconic women designers. Thanks to her evolving style which is defined by a subtle fusion of clean lines and neutral tones and intuitively balanced with an opulent warmth, as her biography says, Kelly Hoppen has become a multi-award winning designer.
European Woman Of Achievement in 2007, ELLE Decoration Award and Grazia Designer of the Year are just some of the awards she had received so far. From homes in Bayswater, St. James’s, and other parts of London, to yachts and jets of private clients, Kelly Hoppen has a full spectrum of projects in her resume. She has also designed hotels, restaurants, offices, aircraft and other commercial projects in various countries.
Designs
One of the most recent projects and highlights of Hoppen’s career is certainly a collaboration with Disney to celebrate Mickey Mouse’s 90th anniversary. She designed the Celebrity Edge cruise ship for Celebrity Cruises. She was also responsible for creating a majestic luxury residential tower block in Taiwan, One Park Taipei, and LUX* Grand Gaube hotel.
Sophie Mallebranche
Finally, Sophie Mallebrance: an “emerging” French designer focused on R&D of new woven metal materials, probably not so well-know as the previous but for sure equally talented.
She graduated from the École supérieure des arts appliqués Duperré in Paris and has been widely recognized for inventing new methods of weaving to give the malleability and suppleness of textiles to the industrial materials.
The fact that internationally renowned architects and designers such as Peter Marino, Robert A. M. Stern, and Tony Chi, have used her designs tells more about her work than any resume. Jacques Grange, Gensler, Rena Dumas, Yabu Pushelberg and Flanagan Lawrence Designs are also some of the famous architects and designers she attracted with her work. Mallebranche also had her exhibitions at Tokyo Designers Block, one of Japan’s largest design events. Alongside that, she has won 1st Prize at Concours Museum Expression in Paris and Lauréate de Talents à la carte, Maison & Objet in Paris, together with an array of other awards.
Designs
Sophie Mallebranche owns a company which specializes in creating one of a kind luxurious woven materials principally made of blends of innovative metallic threads and wire. There is a combination of hundreds of designs, motifs and colours of materials for everyone’s taste and style. They can be applied as wall panelling, laminated glass partitions, frames and window treatments in exceptional spaces.
