Philippe Starck born in 1949 in Paris is a French architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, household objects and furniture, boats or other vehicles.
Life
Philippe Starck born in 1949, the son of Andre Starck, aeronautics engineer. He says that his father often inspired him, and that because he was an engineer, that it made, "Invention a duty". His family originally came from the Alsace region, before his grandfather moved to Paris. He studied at the École Camondo in Paris.
Career
From restaurants to hotels, furniture to space modules, the French designer Philippe Starck has put his ingenious stamp on more than 10,000 designs. 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, Alessi, Kartell, and internationally, including Drimmer in Austria, Vitra in Switzerland and Disform in Spain. His concept of democratic design led him to focus on mass-produced consumer goods rather than one-off pieces, seeking ways to reduce cost and improve quality in mass market goods. Moto 6.5 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, 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.
Architecture
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 in Paris. In 1991, he designed one of the pavilions for the new Groninger Museum. Starck also designed affordable and adjustable pre-fabricated P.A.T.H. houses.
Hotels, restaurants and cultural venues
Since the late 1980s, Starck has designed a number of 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 Sandersonthe Saint Martin's Lane in London, Le Meurice renovations in 2016, the Royal Monceau as well as more recently the Hotel Brach and the Hotel 9Confidentiel, in Paris. Also in France, in the South West, Philippe Starck designed La Corniche and Haitza 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 has designed several restaurants, including in the early years, the Café Costes in Paris, Manin in Tokyo, Theatron in Mexico City, Teatriz in Madridor more recently several restaurants with the Alajmo brothers in Paris, Venice and Milan - Caffe Stern, Amo, Gran Caffe Quadri and Amor, La Réserve à la Plage in Saint Tropez with Michel Reybier Hospitality, The Avenue at Saks in New York in 2019. The Alhondiga, a 43,000 sq. m culture and leisure venue in Bilbao, opened in 2010.
Yachts
In 2004 Starck designed the Motor Yacht A and then in 2012 the A – one of the world's largest sailing yachts. . Starck designed the infrastructure for the Port Adriano harbour on the south-west bay of Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca and was artistic director for the interior. It opened in April 2012. 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.
Starck was the first designer to participate in the TED Talks. Through his "democratic design" concept, Starck has campaigned for well-designed objects that are not just aimed for upper-tiered incomes. He has expressed this as a utopian ideal, approached in practice by increasing production quantities to cut costs and by using mail-order, via Les 3 Suisses. In January 2013 he redesigned the Navigo travel pass. One of the ways Starck has economized costs for the public is his plastic-furniture line, producing pieces such as the Kartell Louis Ghost chair, over a million of which have been sold. He has also been involved in the development of Fluocaril toothbrushes to bathroom fittings for Duravit, Hansgrohe, Hoesch and Axor, from Alessi's Juicy Salif lemon squeezer to Zikmu speakers, Zik headphones by Parrot, Laguiole Knives, Starckeyes glasses by Mikli and the Marie Coquine lamp for Baccarat. Alongside his work Philippe Starck partnered with Moustache Bikes for the M.A.S.S.. This is a portfolio of four e-bikes that use a Bosch electrical engine and battery pack. Starck helped design the Xiaomi Mi MIX smartphone, notable for having a 6.4-inch "whole surface screen". In 2019 the so called AI chair was presented to the public. Philippe Starck cooperated with experts of the 3D software company Autodesk and created a chair design with help of an Artificial Intelligence.
Political messaging
Sometimes pointed political messages, combined with the unexpected and humour can be found in his projects, such as the subversive Gun Lamp, the Superarchimoon floor lamp, in fact a giant architect's lamp standing 217 centimetres high, the Haaa!!! and Hooo!!! lamps he imagined with the American artist Jenny Holzer and the chandeliers in the Darkside collection, featuring the Zenith chandelier.
