Patricia Urquiola creates desert luxury for Louis Vuitton's Miami store

Milan based designer, Patricia Urquiola recently presented several of her designs from both her old and new collections as part of Louis Vuitton’s Objets Nomades collection at Design Miami 2021 alongside prominent designers like Marcel Wanders Studio, Frank Chou, Campana Brothers, India Mahdavi and Atelier Oï.

“The design is a surreal presentation of formations and fossil-like structures that bloom together with the Objets Nomades collection. Within this landscape, clusters grow alongside imaginary desert plants to create this lush desert in which mineral and plant, soft and hard co-exist,” Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola says about the space she designed for the showcase of the Objets Nomades collection at Design Miami 2021.

Designer and architect Patricia Urquiola's works focus on building an empathic connection with the user that will eventually occupy, use or interact with her designs, and letting this connection guide her practice. She also consistently utilises the latest technological offerings to make her designs more efficient and interesting.

Urquiola’s section at the design festival was especially warm and welcoming, populated by nearly 40 innovative design pieces from the collection. Calling the space her “mesmerising desert landscape”, the showcase comprised both vintage limited-edition pieces as well as new items from the Objets Nomades collection by Louis Vuitton, which has consistently added new objects from different designers to this collection since 2012.

Both, the Palaver Chair and the Hanging Swing Chair by Urquiola were exhibited at the festival, befitting the theme of the designed space. Some other designs that were showcased in the space included the Campana brothers’ Merengue in three colours, Marcel Wanders studio’s Petal Chair, Raw Edge’s Cosmic Table, Signature Armchair & Sofa by Chinese designer Frank Chou and the Totem Lumineux by Studio Louis Vuitton.

The Louis Vuitton Swing Chair designed by Patricia Urquiola is characterised by two large metallic hoops that hold the ends of the chair. The chair is sturdy enough to resist lateral movements, tensions and torsions and flexible enough to easily collapse and be transported. The two versions of this chair utilise materials like leather, metal, synthetic polyurethane cord and cotton for the seat, backrest, cushions, rings and upper hanger.

Inspired by the form of handbags, the chair looks like a giant bag that has been held open, providing enough space to curl up on it comfortably. Made out of woven mesh, the chair may also appear like it's meant to adorn lounge spaces as an accessory.