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Philippe Starck
Bauhaus Architect and Furniture Designer
When 2004 French star designer Philippe Starck was given the Raymond Loewy Foundation
Lucky Strike Design Award for his life's work, the jury justified giving it to him as
follows: "Philippe Starck is probably the most unusual, quirkiest, and exciting
designer of the past twenty years and likely to be for decades to come."
There is probably no area of life for which Philippe Starck has not come up
with a design and he is today one of the most influential of all contemporary
designers. Born in Paris in 1949, Philippe Starck is the son of an aeronautical
engineer. Between 1965 and 1967 Philippe Starck attended the École Nissim de
Camondo in Paris. In the late 1960s, Philippe Starck collaborated with the
designer Quasar on inflatable seating objects.
In 1969 Philippe Starck became art director at Pierre Cardin and designed furniture.
In the 1970s he worked as an interior decorator, designing, among other interiors,
the "La Main Bleue" bar in Montreuil (1976) and "Les Bains Douches", a Paris club
(1978). In 1980 he founded Starck Products, a company for making and marketing his designs.
In 1982 Philippe Starck was one of several designers commissioned to refurbish
the private apartments of François Mitterand in the Elysée Palace in Paris.
In 1984 Philippe Starck designed the interior of the Café
Costes
in Paris, for which he also designed the elegant "Costes" chair (for Driade).
That commission was followed by many others for designing interiors around
the world. In 1988 Philippe Starck was commissioned to design the furnishings
and appointments of the Hotel Royalton in New York, a commission followed in
1990 by another to design another boutique interior for the Paramount Hotel.
In 1988 Philippe Starck designed "Ará", a horn-shaped metal table lamp which
would become one of his most successful lamps. For the Royalton he also
designed wall lighting in this quirky form.
In 1990/91 Starck designed his celebrated signature lemon squeezer, the long-legged
"Juicy Salif" and the "Hot Bertaa" kettle for Alessi. For Driade,
Kartell, Baleri, and his own firm, XO (established in 1985 with Gerard Mialet),
and others, Philippe Starck designed numerous, highly popular pieces of seat furniture,
such as "Dr. Sonderbar" (1983), "Von Vogelsang" (1984), "Lola Mundo" (1986), "Richard III"
(1981), and "Lord Yo" (1994).
). The Philippe Starck "W.W. Stool" dates from 1994 and the "Prince Aha" stool from
1996. For Kartell, Philippe Starck has designed the Ghost line of chairs and armchairs
of transparent polycarbonate.
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