Is ever-evolving technology, changing the design world and your way to create?

Ph.S. - “Some people create with a computer. Good for them, but it is not good for me. They will be creative but only within the glass box of the computer program that somebody else created. It's like a fly, trapped in a box. It can fly anywhere, but always in within that box. With tracing paper and a pencil, I can make whatever I want and I can make it very fast. There is no required battery, no wires, no plugging. I never use a computer to create – I actually never use a computer at all. My team then obviously develops the creations on the computer. It does not make the product better, but we save time and time is very, very, very important. However, I have had a fantastic experience creating a chair called A.I. for Kartell, an Italian furniture company. I was very bored one day, so I thought to myself “you are a devil of creativity but in the end, it’s always the same as what other people do”. For the first time in my life, I had a feeling that I needed a little help from a friend. I went to see the best A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) company in the world, based in California and called Autodesk. I asked them if I could use their brain, their machine. These charming people accepted and let me do what I wanted with it. The idea was that the machine would create what I needed, without any memory, any culture, any humanity input, something coming completely out of nowhere. I asked the machine to help me rest my body with the minimum of material and the minimum of energy. That was all. At first, the computer was completely lost. It took it two years and a half to find a solution. Suddenly, after many back-and-forth and mistakes, the machine had a flash. It finally created the A.I., which is today a chair to rest our body using the minimum of energy and material. It was what I wanted and it is done. The A.I. was better than me.”

 

 

What is your favorite room in the house and why?

Ph.S. - “The best room is where my bed is because, in my bed, there is my wife. The second is my shower. I spend hours in there. I know it is not ecological but, in the shower, my brain flies somewhere else, to fantastic territories. Then comes the kitchen because there is the fire, which is the center of life.”

 

 

How do Imagine the perfect bathroom?

Ph.S. - “The perfect bathroom does not look like a bathroom. It looks like a salon, a bedroom, an office or whatever you want. Bathrooms only appeared in houses at the beginning of the 20th century. People were then fascinated by hygiene, which by the way became a big issue afterwards. For hygienic reasons, bathrooms were all white and clean and today we still think of bathrooms as machines to wash ourselves. Yet, we no longer need this. I like designing bathtubs and sinks that go into the bedroom; the bedroom becomes the living room and the living room becomes the kitchen. Everything is mixed. The only rule to the perfect bathroom is freedom, freedom to respect your own taste – good or bad, it does not matter, as long as it is yours.”

 

 

You have been working with Duravit for more than 25 years. What is the secret of this long-lasting collaboration?

Ph.S. - “It is not a collaboration. It is a love affair. To love people, you need respect. You respect them because they are honest, intelligent, open-minded, fun, elegant. You respect and love them for human reasons, which have strictly no relation with business or work. With respect, everything becomes very, very, very, very easy. When we meet at the factory, I am very happy and we all have a lot of fun. We joke a lot and we keep serious talks to a minimum. That’s the beauty: to have fun and joy during all the process. I have never had with anyone the 25 years love affair that I have with Duravit. Of course, I shall do it with my fantastic wife, yet we are still at 17 years.”