Philippe Starck
2007 Masters of DesignSounds lovely, but I can hear the developers: "We can't sell just pillows! We need wine cellars! Walk-in closets!"
Usually, the developer is just a greedy guy trying to make maximum money. And the architect is the guy who thinks his job is just to put people out of the cold and rain into steel, glass, and stone.
Your real-estate projects stretch from Bulgaria to Argentina. How would I know if I was in a Starck-designed building?
When you open the door and go through the lobby, you will go, "Oh, it's weird." Everything is too big, too small. But it will give you some energy. For me, I am just a producer of surprise.
Does that apply to the building's exterior?
No. Today, all buildings are very fancy, they are all narcissistic masturbation to the glory of the guys who design them. This was a little fun 25 years ago when architecture was sleeping. Now it's time to come back to quality. I want somebody walking by on the street to say, "Look, darling. It can be good to live here. I think we could be at peace." The building should just have a technical elegance.
Surely a Philippe Starck project would be more stylish than that.
If you see everything I do, there is not a style, there's a logic. There is a way of thinking, the same brain. There's a family look--depending on whether it's a hydrogen car, a plane, a mega-yacht, a toothpick, my organic rice, or my new hotel chain. There is the same ethic, same angle of view, the same poetry, the same humor. If people love it, perfect. If they hate it, so? Everybody love me too much. Everybody hate me too much. But nobody says, "Starck? I don't know what it is."
You've said you want to design community right into the building. How?
By now, we know very well the members of our tribe--they are smart, modern, rebels, aware. So in our buildings, everybody is potentially a friend, partner, lover. I work a lot on the energy of the place. In Montreal, I put a gym in the lobby so each day, when you leave for work, you make a race on the stationary bikes with your neighbor. Or there's a huuuge table, on which everybody can make a big banquet.
Are you a workaholic, or do you just not sleep?
I dream a lot. Everything is made in my head. For example, I must design a new boat for a very, very, very famous person. We met two days ago. Then, last night on the plane, while I am sleeping, I have a complete concept. This morning, I start from the front--clack, clack, clack, clack! I have designed half of the boat. When I shall have 30 minutes, I take my pen--pop, pop, pop, pop!--and design everything.
What inspires you? How do you feed your head?
I go nowhere. Movies, theater, exhibitions--nothing. My only inspiration is my life. I am old. I have made every mistake possible. I have paid for everything. I am not very good to lead the daily life, to speak frankly. But I am very interested in high-quality literature and very, very interested in science, mathematics, biology, astrophysics, and things like that. I love the poetry of these things.
In everything I do, there is not a style, there's a logic. There is a way of thinking, the same brain.
You design so well for a sophisticated, urban audience. Do you like cities?
I am not a city guy. I am not a fashion victim. I live mainly on my oyster farm in the southwest of France, on a small island with 12 houses and without cars, electricity, or water. It's a very rough life, a very basic life. The island is full of mud. I also have a house on a small island in Venice. If you are with the person you love, a good book, good music, and in front of you is the sea, the forest, the Venice bay, or 200 million oysters, that's enough.
Do you have a formula for creativity?
Every morning, take royal jelly and omega-3 oil, eat oysters, and have a good sexual life. Don't care about anything, and never listen to anybody. Be free.
Feedback: tischler@fastcompany.com
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