Interview Starck

Photo: Starck, Mondino

Tell us about your collaboration with Warendorf. What does the Collection include? How long did it take to come to fruition?
This collection is about us, about the evolution of our habits, of society. It is about a life spent (since the beginning of time) around the fire. Fire that was the central place of any village, city, civilization. Starck by Warendorf kitchens bring new ergonomics, a different answer to daily life: the wife is no more cloistered away in her kitchen while the children are in their rooms … now the entire family can interact and share their lives in the space I propose. The option of a high table also allows a more dynamic approach between people. And as we cannot cater to everybody’s taste, there are options so that everyone, from our tribe, can find his/her fire. The kitchen used to be the heart and centre of any home. It is where the entire family meets. When I was designing the Warendorf kitchen, the hugely important task was to create a room that everyone wants to be in because it exudes a feeling of wellbeing.

In the old days, everything happened in granny’s eat-in kitchen. Today the kitchen has become a place of communication again. How can the design, as well as the architecture, promote this communicativeness?
Because the kitchen is the centre of the house, because there is the fire and the mother who feeds us. I don't care about good design or good objects, but a good project is a project with vision, honesty, creativity, respect, humour and poetry which can help a tribe to have a better life. It is the contrary to an object just designed to be sold and created by venal and cynical and often talentless marketing people.

Philippe Starck talks about:

• the cooperation with Warendorf
• evolution
• the combination of meterials
• ... and good smelling Colonians