Patricia Urquiola: the contemporary designer most likely to be the next Achille Castiglioni

Patricia Urquiola's contemporary pieces for Moroso, B&B Italia and Cassina are some of the most actively traded recent designs on Whoppah. Our curators see strong demand from buyers under 40, which is a meaningful platform signal.

The most-cited working designer

Patricia Urquiola (born 1961, Oviedo, Spain) is the contemporary furniture designer whose work most reliably ends up on the editorial pages of design magazines today. She trained as an architect in Madrid and Milan, joined Vico Magistretti's studio in 1990, and opened her own Milan practice in 2001. She's now the creative director of Cassina (since 2015), and her independent practice produces work for Moroso, B&B Italia, Kettal, Molteni, Mutina, and most of the rest of the Italian high-end design industry.

I include her here, even though she's mid-career and her pieces are mostly still in current production, because her work is starting to appear on the secondhand market and is genuinely worth tracking. Twenty years from now, "vintage Urquiola from the early 2010s" will be a category on Whoppah the way "vintage Magistretti from the early 1970s" is now.

The pieces

The Husk armchair (2011, B&B Italia), with the shell-like curving back and modular seat, is one of her most-recognised pieces. Authentic vintage B&B Italia Husks from the early 2010s sit at €1,800 to €4,500 on Whoppah (current B&B retail is around €6,500).

The Tropicalia chaise (2008, Moroso), with the colourful woven seat on a steel frame, is the most photographed. Vintage Moroso Tropicalias €1,200 to €3,000.

The Antibodi chair (2006, Moroso), the felt-petal stacking chair, is the more sculptural piece. €800 to €1,800 used.

The Mangas rug series (2010 onward, Gan) is her textile work that has become genuinely collectible. The original Gan production examples sit at €600 to €2,500 depending on size.

Her recent Cassina work as creative director (the Cab-EVO update, the new colorways of classic pieces) is mostly still current production, so the secondhand market for that is just starting to develop.

Why her work is worth catching now

Two reasons.

First, the design vocabulary she's building (woven textiles, sculptural curves, considered colour, hybridised craft and industrial process) is already influencing the next generation of designers. If you want to live with the work that's setting the contemporary direction, this is the work.

Second, her secondhand market is currently underpriced relative to what it'll be in fifteen years. The Husk and Tropicalia in particular will probably hold or appreciate. Buying one now is functionally indistinguishable from buying a Magistretti Maralunga in 1985: you're getting a contemporary major-designer piece before the secondary market catches up to it.

Authentication

All authentic Urquiola production carries the maker's brand label (Moroso, B&B Italia, Cassina, etc.). The Mangas rugs have Gan labels woven into one corner. Authentication is straightforward; the bigger question is condition, since her contemporary pieces aren't yet old enough to have the patina markers of mid-century work.