Luxury is a word that's hard to avoid when talking to Antonio Citterio.
The Italian designer - of buildings, interiors and products - is practically synonymous with the term. He's designed hotels for Bulgari and Mandarin Oriental, stores for De Beers and Valentino, and furniture for B&B Italia for several years and, from this year, Hermes. But still luxury is a word he does not take to.
'I don't like to talk about luxury,' he says as he takes a break from the recently concluded Business of Design Week at the Hong Kong Convention Centre, where he was an opening speaker. 'Our business is in this kind of world - our projects are very high-end, working with 'luxury' brands, but luxury is a strange word. I prefer to use the term 'quality'. It's about using materials and creating designs that are timeless.
'They are an investment. I don't want to design things that will look old in a few years. There are sofas I designed 20 years ago but they are timeless. I try to create contemporary classic design.'
Citterio has the understated style befitting of a native of Milan (he was born in nearby Meda, a city famous for furniture-making, which perhaps predestined his career choice in the most propitious way). It's easy to guess that the flashy, over-the-top decadence that sometimes accompanies luxury is not to his taste.
Now in his early 60s and his fourth decade of designing, Citterio is still full of enthusiasm and energy for his industry. His business, in partnership with Patricia Viel, with whom he has worked since 1999 (hence the banner Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel and Partners), stretches across Europe, America and Asia. He has flown in for 24 hours for the Business of Design conference in Hong Kong and does the same for meetings in Singapore, where he has a new project on the go.
