Its difficult to describe Philippe Starck in a few wordsor even a few sentences. The French designer, whos known globally for his work in interior, exterior, product, furniture, industrial, and architectural design, has designed everything from low-energy wooden prefabricated houses (known as P.A.T.H., or Prefabricated Accessible Technological Homes), to yachts and hotels, to the residences of the French president.

Hes also responsible for one of the worlds most iconic pieces of furniturethe ghost chair.

Mr. Starck, 71, has coined the phrase democratic design, describing it as something that provides quality pieces at accessible prices.

More: Aspen Brokerage Founder Says Its Core Area is Expanding

And early this year, he announced his newest furniture collection, Oh, It Rains!, in collaboration with B&B Italia Outdoor, a company that focuses on functional furniture. The sofas and armchairs in the collection include a mechanical joint that allows the backrest to recline, as well as to fold over the cushions in order to protect the furniture in case of rain. The pieces are made of water-repellant proprietary textiles.

Outside of furniture and home design, Mr. Starck also had a brief stint as art director for the Virgin Galactic spaceport, is a winemaker (with his own Champagne with Maison Louis Roederer), makes perfume under the label STARCK Paris (interestingly, his mother operated a parfumerie when he was a child), and creates ultraflexible eyeglasses in collaboration with Luxottica, a project that combines design with biomechanics.

We caught up with Mr. Starck to discuss his passions, his inspirations, and what he felt was missing from outdoor furniture.

From Penta: Worldwise: Chef Nina Comptons Favorite Things

Mansion Global: Who are some of your inspirations in the design world?

Philippe Starck: I have no admiration for designers, architects, or artists. I love scientists. My heroes are Ptolemy, Einstein, Archimedes, et cetera. They are among the ones who change the world.

What does democratic design mean to you now? Has that changed throughout the years?

Im not really proud of what I do because design is useless. It can help improve lives, but it does not save lives. However, Im proud of my battle to democratize design: increasing quality, yet lowering prices in order to make design affordable for the wider public. Now that this battle is won, I can continue with democratic ecology and democratic architecture. I started with P.A.T.H., highly technological and high-quality prefabricated houses, to save energy, time, money, and guarantee longevity at the right price. Recently, I worked on the next commercial International Space Station in collaboration with Axiom to develop commercial space tourism. Im very happy to take part in this project because companies like Axiom are focusing on space research and are searching for solutions in order to democratize space.

How did the project with B&B Italia come about? What was your design inspiration for that collaboration?

I always say that to make beautiful children, parents have to be in love. Its the same with projects; to make beautiful projects, you have to share the same values with your partner. I always thought there was something wrong with outdoor furniture collections. When you are in a beautiful hotel, enjoying the swimming pool, and suddenly someone says: Oh, it rains! and hundreds of waiters start panicking, picking up all the pillows and cushions, there is something not quite right. So I wanted to create a solution. I worked on a whole range of options that allow you to intervene in a few simple steps when it starts to rain. For example, by simply folding the backrest forward, you can cover the upholstery like a protective flap, and as soon as the sun comes back, simply unfold and youre ready. This is the most elegant design made with high technology, high quality, and high intelligence.

More: Barrier-Breaking Architect Says Its Time for More Women in the Field

What will the furniture of the future look like?

Design is a simple tool that has been created to improve the ugly obligations of our daily life. There is no future for design, as we are now entering the era of bionism [the art of taking inspiration from the body to create technologies better suited to the human being, according to Mr. Starck] and dematerialization. In the coming years, all the useless things around us will disappear, they will become integrated directly into the walls, to the body. The next designer will be our coach, our dietician.

Youve also launched perfume. How do you get inspired to come up with scents? And what interests you about being in that business?

STARCK Paris is not a design project. It is a personal project, coming from my brain, from my heart. ...With my wife, Jasmine, we spent years discovering the works of almost all existing master perfumers,

carrying out blind tests. And eventually we recognized Daphn Bugey, Annick Mnardo, and Dominique Ropion as part of my sentimental tribe. People who share a vision and creative intelligence. We invented a new diagonal language in order to translate my vision, my mental space, actually turning my words into chemicals and perfumes. I am passionate about perfume because it is so powerful, abstractlike a vehicle, a weapon. With a nanodrop of scent, that is less than a milligram of liquid, you can create your own universe, your own territory.

Whats next for you?

To continue to direct my creation and my production toward immateriality, toward the minimum while giving the maximum. My Starck Biotech Paris glasses are a good example. We continue to explore biotechnology, while working on dematerialization and bionism by proposing new, innovative solutions. ... stay tuned.

This story first appearedin Mansion Global magazine, published on March 14th, 2020.

Click to Read More Luxury Real Estate Professionals Share Their Insights

Read the original:
Philippe Starck Is Living the Future - Mansion Global