Patricia Urquiola, design as alchemy

Patricia Urquiola, what makes Milan Design Week special to you?

Milan is my city of choice – it’s where I live, where I began my professional journey, met key people and developed meaningful projects. Over the years, I’ve witnessed the city transform into the capital of design, attracting over half a million visitors during Milan Design Week. Thanks to the Salone del Mobile and the dedication of Italian design companies, what began as a furniture fair has become a global platform for designers and architects, a creative lab open to every discipline. This energy doesn’t fade after one week: it’s kept alive by a network of showrooms, studios, companies, events, and design publishers throughout the whole year.

How did your collaboration with Elle Decor Italia begin, and why is this year particularly significant?

My relationship with Elle Decor Italia is rooted in mutual curiosity and a shared passion for narrative-driven design. This year I’m curating their annual exhibition. My project, Alchemica, doesn’t just represent an ideal home, it’s conceived as an immersive and experiential journey. It celebrates transformation, and it shows how editorial vision and design practice can come together to create something poetic and unexpected.

What is the concept behind Alchemica?

Alchemica is an exploration of the home through the metaphor of alchemy – something that has never been an exact science, but rather a field of experimentation, a crossroads of science and magic, where nature meets artifice. It looks at the home as an ever-evolving space of constant transformation – a laboratory of ideas and experimentation. I see the home as a living, transforming organism, shifting throughout the day, the seasons, and the phases of life. It’s not a fixed perimeter, but a mutable system, reflecting our complexity and constant evolution. The structure of Alchemica unfolds like an ouroboros, the serpent that bites its own tail, symbolising a perpetual cycle of transformation. The alchemical power should be interpreted as the ability we possess to change things within this ongoing flow, to find our own philosopher’s stones and start anew.

How do the themes of transformation and experimentation reflect your design philosophy?

I like to navigate across different disciplines, scales, and materials. That’s where the most interesting things happen – when ideas are allowed to evolve. I’m interested in objects and spaces that are in flux, never static. Transformation is a way to keep the design alive, connected to the user and to time.

Focusing on the kitchen area: why did you define it as a “cucina laboratorio” (kitchen laboratory)?

The “cucina laboratorio” is part of the Nigredo-Ardeat room, which evokes the first phase of alchemy, when fire initiates transformation and dark matter fuses in fertile chaos. It’s the beginning of a process of dissolution. Here, the central island, custom-designed for the exhibition by Henge, is a dark monolith composed of various volumes of black stone and violet onyx. These elements integrate the cooktop, a sink, and a work surface, all illuminated by a violet light glowing from beneath the countertop. The ovens – also symbols of fire – are semi-recessed into the left wall, forming a shelf animated by heat and light.

You often say that you like materials that have a voice. What materials did you select for the Alchemica kitchen, and why?

I wanted the kitchen to evoke the moment when everything begins to melt, so we chose dark, dense materials that feel like primordial matter. The island is made of violet onyx and black stone – materials that are deeply expressive, almost geological. The space is framed by a shell clad in large, studded panels of polished Cimento® – a new-generation cement.

How do V-ZUG’s products integrate into the Alchemica kitchen?

V-ZUG’s appliances are not just tools, they’re part of the architecture, part of the narrative of experimentation. In the Nigredo-Ardeat room, they are one of the symbols of fire.

You work across disciplines – architecture, interiors, product design. How does this multidisciplinary approach shape Alchemica?

For me, architecture and product design have always been intertwined. I enjoy moving between large and small scales. In my studio, the architecture and design teams work closely and are deeply integrated. I often discover architectural solutions while working on a product, and vice versa. This same approach informed Alchemica: it’s spatial, tactile, narrative. It’s the convergence of disciplines and the reflection of my method. Every project is a new journey: empathy, dialogue and cross-pollination are my mantras, the principles that guide my design.