Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, June 16, 2022: Philippe Starck, a French architect and industrial designer (#1597)

Thursday, June 16, 2022

Artist of the Day, June 16, 2022: Philippe Starck, a French architect and industrial designer (#1597)

Philippe Starck (1949) is a French industrial architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, architecture, household objects, furniture, boats and other vehicles.

Starck was born in Paris. He is the son of Andre Starck, who was an aeronautics engineer. He says that his father often inspired him because he was an engineer, who made invention a "duty". His family was originally from and lived in the Alsace region, before his grandfather moved to Paris. He studied at the École Camondo in Paris.

While working for Adidas, Starck set up his first industrial design company, Starck Product, which he later renamed Ubik after Philip K. Dick's novel, and began working with manufacturers in Italy (Driade), Alessi, Kartell, and internationally, including Drimmer in Austria, Vitra in Switzerland and Disform in Spain.

In 1983, then-French President François Mitterrand, on the recommendation of his Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, chose Starck to refurbish the president's private apartments at the Élysée. The following year he designed the Café Costes.

Starck's output expanded to include furniture, decoration, architecture, street furniture, industry (wind turbines, photo booths), bathroom fittings, kitchens, floor, and wall coverings, lighting, domestic appliances, office equipment such as staplers, utensils, tableware, clothing, accessories, toys, glassware, graphic design and publishing, food, and vehicles for land, sea, air and space

The architect
The buildings he designed in Japan, starting in 1989, went against the grain of traditional forms. The first, Nani Nani, in Tokyo, described as a biomorphic shed. A year later he designed the Asahi Beer Hall in Tokyo, a building topped with a golden flame. This was followed in 1992 by Le Baron Vert office complex in Osaka. In France he designed the extension of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris (1998)

In 1991, Starck designed one of the pavilions for the new Groninger Museum.

Since the late 1980s, Starck has designed several hotels in different countries, these include the Royalton Hotel and Paramount Hotel in New York City, the Delano in Miami, the Hudson Hotel and the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood, the Sanderson the Saint Martin's Lane in London, Le Meurice renovations in 2016, the Royal Monceau as well as more recently the Hotel Brach (2018) and the Hotel 9Confidentiel, in Paris. Also in France, in the South West, Philippe Starck designed La Co(o)rniche and Ha(a)itza hotels, both in Arcachon, near the Dune of Pilat. In 2019, Starck created the Lily of the Valley Hotel on the French Riviera and in 2020, opened La Réserve Eden au Lac Zurich.

Starck was commissioned by the Hilton Worldwide to create entirely a new hotel in Metz, France. Maison Heler is a phantasmagoric building topped by a traditional Alsatian house, a poetic symbol of the region that should open in 2021.[28]

Yacht
In 2004, commissioned by Russian Oligarch Andrey Melnichenko, Starck designed the Motor Yacht A and then in 2012 the A (sailing yacht) – one of the world's largest sailing yachts.
A (sailing yacht)

In 2008, he designed Steve Jobs's yacht Venus, which was launched in October 2012, just over a year after the death of Apple's founder. The yacht was built at Aalsmeer in the Netherlands.

Furniture
Zartan, created for Magis in 2010, is a chair entirely made from natural material as bamboo, linen and hemp fiber, a non-toxic and biodegradable alternative to replace plastic.

In 2012, Starck released Broom for Emeco, an anti-waste chair made of materials collected in lumber and plastic plants factories.

Starck released Cassina Croque la pomme in 2019, a furniture collection for Cassina, entirely made from a vegan fabric, with apple leather.

Technology
In 1996, Starck worked with Alain Mikli to launch Starck Eyes. Bought in 2013 by Luxottica, Starck Eyes becomes Starck Biotech Paris in 2019 and is inspired by the human body to create revolutionary eyewear, merging design with biomechanics.

Starck helped design the Xiaomi Mi MIX smartphone, notable for having a 6.4-inch "whole surface screen".

In 2016, Starck developed a GPS-tracking wristband, DIAL (Individual Alert and Localization Device) for Société nationale de Sauvetage en Mer, which allows endangered people to share their exact location to rescue service whether they are in the sea or in the beach.

In 2018, Starck collaborated with Axiom Space and created the interior of the International Space Station's housing module. A comfortable and luxurious living space adapted to weightlessness, with suede-textured walls, big windows to appreciate the view and all the technology needed to stay connected.

In 2019, the so-called AI chair was presented to the public. Starck cooperated with experts of the 3D software company Autodesk and created a chair design with help of an Artificial Intelligence.

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