Cookware set composed of: stockpot (PU100/20), casserole with two handles (PU101/20), low casserole with two handles (PU102/24), saucepan (PU105/16), 3 lids (PU200/16, PU200/20, PU200/24) in 18/10 stainless steel. Handles in 18/10 stainless steel with PVD coating, brown. Magnetic steel bottom suitable for induction cooking.

Basque roots, trained both in Spain and Italy — where she was a pupil of Achille Castiglioni — studied in Milan: apart from these highlights of her biography, it is difficult to fit in just a few brief lines the overflowing creative work of Patricia Urquiola. “We talk about inspiration as if it were something that is in the air and the designer were a being with a special sensitivity capable of perceiving it,” says the designer, “but for me it’s something within us all, it’s about emotional memory, emotional and cultural, which makes you perceive the elements that become driving forces in the project.

It is a short circuit that is created between personal memory and reality”. These “short circuits” have also guided the design of the Edo pans: “ a whole range of references that play off each other”, she explains, “associations between things that are distant, but that in my head, are close. The name derives from the Latin edere, ‘I eat’, but it is also the ancient name of Tokyo, city of reference for me”. Japan is the origin of many of the pots that the designer uses in her kitchen, where uses a variety of utensils and ingredients from different origins. “This project”, she adds, “is my response to the changes I observe in society, to the multiplication of fantastic exchanges between different cultures”. Leading the designer is also the desire to create an object that does not seem mass-produced: the cylindrical shape of the containers is softened by a flaring, an invitation to the gesture of pouring; the burnished handles, which look like ribbons pinned to the body of the pots, add a sense of lightness to the overall design. The designer’s Spanish roots lie in the shape of the lids: “I wanted it to be different from the others, concave rather than convex: a sort of Basque chapela. Once the Basque theme entered my head, I couldn’t get it it out anymore”.

“There is a pot that I particularly love, it’s the one that’s a little tall, even a little bit stupid, with the handle on the side, like an ear ... I don’t want to call it ’milk warmer’ because it’s such a nice object that it makes me want to give it its own name, a funny name. It represents the secret soul of the collection, this project’s kind side, it is the real Edo... it’s name is: Edoardo!”