A Rodrigo Izquierdo’s interview was published on Solar magazine, n.6, Autumn Winter 2018.
INTERNAL FLIGHT
After training in some of the most important studies in the sector, Interior designer Rodrigo Izquierdo faces his decisive challenge: walking alone and laying the foundations for a philosophy, ethics and aesthetics of interior design
Text: Carlos Primo
Photography: PABLO GARCÍA CONTRERAS
Vertigo does not exist in the personal vocabulary of Rodrigo Izquierdo (Barcelona, 1979), although more than one would demand that term to describe the sensation of starting one’s own project in a world, that of interior design, in which competition is fierce and there never seems to be room for everyone. “I am very calm and I am very confident that things, in the end, will turn out well,” explains this Barcelonan from his Milan studio who has been comfortably installed at the heights of the sector for almost seventeen years, although now he is starting virtually from -from scratch.
I always knew that I wanted to do design,” he points out. After studying at Eyna (Barcelona) and completing a master’s degree, he started working at the Tarruella López studio, a true institution in Spanish interior design. He stayed there for two years. “And then I decided to try my luck abroad.” No sooner said than done. Izquierdo, who had already sharpened his teeth in the finest of national interior design, landed practically alone, with a portfolio under his arm, in Milan, where he barely knew anyone. «It was then when a friend suggested that I talk to Patricia Urquiola. It surprised me, because I knew her as a furniture designer, but not as an interior designer. I tried my luck, I did the interview and we started working together. For thirteen years, Izquierdo worked as coordinator (creative supervisor) of the Design department of Studio Urquiola, a key period in which the Asturian became, without any discussion, the most influential designer in Italy and , by extension, of the world. He assures that from her he learned to work on all types of projects, and also to dedicate obsessive and millimeter attention to each one of them. «With it, the small scale is essential, and there comes a time when you get angry because a piece is three millimeters too long. But every millimeter matters. From Patricia I have learned to put sensitivity and acquired baggage into practice.
There are emotional interior designers and mathematical interior designers. As the projects he has signed alone suggest, Rodrigo Izquierdo is a mix of both, with a touch of a bookworm. In the premises that he has designed for the firm Charo Ruiz Ibi-za, the Balearic atmosphere is reflected in natural textures, bright tones and a sumptuous and décontractée poetics. In Roberto Cavalli’s Berlin flagship store, Renaissance Florence is translated into soft colors, custom furniture and an artisanal and feminine atmosphere. The same happens with its residential and hospitality projects. They are all delicate and precise, but the signature is precisely the absence of ego. «A project is carrying out a serious analysis, and being able to objectify it. The premise is the project, finding the elements that underline the message we want to give. The design must be objective. Of course, I have my personal tastes, but I also try to make my decisions objective and obey compelling reasons. Reduce randomness to the maximum. That’s why I enjoy research like a dwarf.” Author of spaces that are almost doctoral theses, Izquierdo assures that, for the moment, he does not want to impose a fixed horizon on his plans. “Everything comes. “I do what I want and what I like, and I know that is the way.”