Happy Birthday mr. Starck!

/ A person /

Alberto Alessi, the owner and manager of a large family-owned designer home goods company, once received a rather unattractive-looking napkin in the mail from a pizzeria in Amalfi, completely covered in tomato sauce stains.

Between them - from a dozen pencil sketches of some frightening-looking object, which, after closer examination, turned out to be... a juicer.

However, the final sketch, marked as a sign of the author's approval with a triumphant tick, rather resembled an interplanetary ship from Welsh's "War of the Worlds". Alberto Alessi glanced at the envelope from which he had fished a napkin a minute before. There were two words—Philippe Stark.

Napkin closure

Why did Stark make sketches on a napkin? It was just that the idea came to him during lunch at a restaurant, when squid were served to the table: and it was their streamlined shapes and tentacles that prompted Philippe to create this design. Be that as it may, in the same 1990, the juicer went into production, and later found its place in the New York Museum of Modern Art. And the napkin is still carefully stored in the Alessi museum.

Probably the Juicy Salif (the name of the metal monster designed for Alessi Stark) is the designer's most famous item. And today we will try not to mention her. Instead, on the day when, exactly 69 years ago, the creator of this iconic and at the same time monstrous contraption was born in Paris to the family of an aircraft designer and a housewife, let's see where and how the birthday man himself lives.

Philippe Starck is a legend of modern design

French by birth, Stark is a full citizen of the world. He has 18 properties at his disposal, each of which he can call his home. According to the designer himself, when he buys the shoes he likes, he immediately demands 20 pairs — one for each house. And two pairs of spares: "Sometimes I think my real home is aboard our plane with Jasmine."

So where are Stark's new boots going? First, to a New York apartment, and secondly, to a villa in Portugal, which Philip calls a "palace." Two more couples go to the Stark family's island estates - Formentera, a few kilometers from Ibiza, and Burano in the Venetian lagoon.

Philippe Starck and his wife Jasmine on the terrace of their house on the island of Burano

But today we will travel for the shoes that are going to France, to the town of Montfort-l'Amory on the Seine. Reach out to Paris, but all around is untouched nature and not a soul. Well, except that the naturist camp is nearby. Stark says they don't bother him. The designer decided to build his house in this heavenly place. Moreover, the housing had to be as environmentally friendly as possible and also flawless from an aesthetic point of view.

Philip's mansion

Philip's mansion

The elegant two-story almost transparent structure you see in the photo is the fruit of many years of research and testing of technologies developed by Stark in collaboration with the Slovenian company Riko, one of the leading European manufacturers of wooden eco-houses. No matter how long Stark developed the design of buildings from the entire PATH (Prefabricated Accessible Technological Homes) line, and Riko specialists did not test them for strength and autonomy, the glass mansion in Montfort-l'Amour was built in a flash, in just six months.

Ready-made wooden modules of the house are assembled on site like a Lego constructor. There is greenery on the roof, which visually combines the building with the surrounding nature. A fancy cornice hides a powerful energy supply system that includes solar panels and wind generators. At the same time, Stark emphasizes that the energy consumption of the entire mansion is half the amount produced by the system on its roof.

Panoramic glazing of the French house of the Starks

The continuous facade glazing of the French house of the Stark family not only blurs the boundary between the interior of the mansion and the surrounding landscape, but also perfectly copes with the function of thermoregulation - glazing in three layers 63 mm thick, thermal insulation based on stone wool. A computer program controls a system of retractable external awnings and blinds, opening the interior spaces to the sun or automatically shading them when necessary.

An open terrace with a teak deck, into which a swimming pool is built

Stark equipped the first floor of the building with an open terrace with a teak deck, into which he built a swimming pool. The hydraulic platform allows you to adjust the depth of its bowl. Or completely hide the pool, where you can, for example, place a barbecue. The furniture on the terrace was designed by the owner himself (Sutherland, Robinwood collection).

Huge glass doors connect the terrace with a spacious living room. Stark's leather chairs and armchairs were bought at a flea market in Sweden. And the carpet on the floor is from Ikea.

Huge sliding doors connecting the living room and the terrace

Stark is a multimillionaire. At the same time, he constantly says: "I hate money. That's why I earn so much to save myself the need to count them"

Opposite, Philip envisioned a dining area with a leather sofa and wooden chairs, which fit in well with the eco-friendly space and echo the warm spruce ceiling and teak decking on the floor. In the back is a spacious kitchen area, separated from the general living area by a marble-topped island, flanked by elegant tall Hudson and Icon bar stools in recycled aluminum, designed by Stark for Emeco. Under the ceiling is a large-scale lamp in the form of a canoe. Of course, of own design.

Dining room area

Laconic corridor of the second floor in spruce panels. Ahead is the guest room

Sides made of metal, enclosing a spiral staircase that connects the floors of the house. And a soothing view from the window

The stairs are made of wood and covered with copper

Stark's work area on the second floor. Here everything is decided in light colors. Lacquered wood on the floor, white textiles on the windows. The hairy chair was designed by Franco Albini for Cassina

To the left of the work area is the bedroom. If desired, the spaces can be divided by closing thick curtains. This private area, like the first floor after all, has no walls. The dressing room (behind the bed) is separated by textile cloths. Maybe that's where he keeps his 300 gray T-shirts

Starck I sink and Cape Cod mirror (Starck for Duravit) right next to the bed

Behind the headboard is a bathtub of Hoesch's own design

Philippe Starck: "I don't really care about the applied value of design. I only care about what I really can't live without. I like things that are made with intelligence, and this is very rare."

As for Stark's gastronomic preferences, he is a staunch vegetarian: "I like to dine with Jasmine. We usually prefer raw organic vegetables with beans or quinoa. And we buy wine without sulfites. Besides, I have never tasted business lunches. Maybe that's why I'm still alive?".