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By Laura Mauk

French designer Philippe Starck has collaborated with David Sutherland to create Sutherland by Starck, the RobinWood Deluxe Collection of outdoor furniture. The pieces "are crafted from first quality teak," says Sutherland, who started his company in 1994 with John Hutton and currently has showrooms in Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, New York, Chicago and Florida. The collection, which features almost thirty designs, combines a classic, clean-lined Sutherland sensibility with an elegant yet playful Starck aesthetic. "Sparkles of cast aluminum bring a moment of modernity which, blended with the classic feel of the woods, creates timelessness," explains Starck, who is known for his interior design of the Cafe Costes, Paris, the Royalton and Paramount hotels in New York and an apartment in the Elysee Palace for former president of France Francois Mitterand; he has also completed numerous product designs, including chairs, light fixtures and a line of housewares. Executive editor Laura Mauk sat down with Starck and Sutherland to find out how they came together and what inspired them and their new collection.

How did you decide to work together?

Starck: I scanned the world for the best people. Sutherland is the best.

Describe the collection.

Sutherland: Philippe said to me, “I want you to understand that I like what you’ve done. I like your history. I’ve used your pieces all around the world. So what you see here is not a revolution, more like an evolution.” The collection became a perfect storm of two things. The references in his design to classic French furniture are obvious. The references to things that we’ve done in the past are obvious. So there’s a terrific respect for the past, and then there’s that Starck edge to it.

Why such a large collection?

Sutherland: The question came up early on and someone suggested six or eight pieces. I said, “That’s not enough! That’s not a collection.” So they settled on ten or twelve. I said, “That’s a good start.” During our first meeting, Philippe and I met in Los Angeles and the first thing he said was, “Ten or twelve pieces are not enough. We need many more pieces.” I said, “Finally we talk. Finally we understand you need a critical mass of wonderful things to really make an impact on the market place.”

Is the collection sustainable?

Sutherland: One of the things Philippe has been very sure of is the need for products to be from sustainable sources. It's a very important thing to us. Our teak is SmartWood Certified.

Starck: We didn’t try to make something cheap. Ecologically, that is the worst thing to do. Never think that recycling is a solution. Recycling is just to fix a mistake. Before recycling, the best thing was to design something that you can keep for fifty years or one-hundred years. That is the most ecological thing. At the right price, we can buy something and keep it a long time.

What inspired you?

Starck: I don't live in the city. I live always far from any society, city, cars. With my wife, I live in the middle of nowhere. We have different types of nowhere. It can be in the middle of the sea, the middle of a small island, my oyster farm in south central France or in the middle of the forest. In the middle of the forest, we have a huge territory of wild animals and things like that. It's not because I especially love nature. It's because I love to be in front of what makes the world. When we are on our oyster farm, we are in the middle of the mud. It's primordial soup. Four million years ago this soup, this mud, was waiting to bring life. And for me, who tries to be a creator, it's very important to be in front of this. The people who work in this mud are also very basic with their real beauty and philosophies.

Philippe, this is your first outdoor furniture collection. Is it something you'd wanted to do?

Starck: I hate cars. We don't go to movie theaters. We don't go to exhibitions. We don't go to restaurants, we don't go anywhere. We are a little stupid, but we work a lot! When I see the countryside, when I see what people have in their garden, I am shocked. I am shocked because I think why do these people want to buy a beautiful house somewhere in nature, but they put this ugly furniture. It's a shame, an absolute obscenity. That's why I thought we needed to make something. I have a style. I have a vision. I have my philosophy, but they become urgent when I need it for myself. That's why I took this time to make something absolutely timeless.

Why was timelessness a priority?

Starck: Timeless because nature is timeless. There is no trend in nature. It's important to be in harmony with nature. That means wood. If you use only wood, it's a little archaic. It was very important to make a cocktail or something mixed. And timeless in this direction is a mix of wood and metal. I use this evocation of European furniture. It's sort of common memory. That means we all have somewhere in our brain this type of furniture. I don't design it. We design it. If I design something incredible you will say, 'Oh my god, I love it. It's so chic!' But you are out of the game. Then, it's not for you. Stylistically, it's for me. If we design something with this memory, we are all part of the game. It's better for you. You can live with the product.

Why not admire good design that isn't necessarily timeless?

Starck: I hate admiration. Admiration always downgrades you. When you have admiration for something that means the thing is better than you. This is stupid, especially when you’re speaking about chairs. If you remember why this civilization was created, it was to make us better. The priority is not material things. It's us. When we design a collection like this, which is very sophisticated but understated, it gives us the ability to blossom. This is the type of furniture that you will grow with. Today, there are designs that are so strong you cannot live with them.

The pieces look as indoor as they do outdoor.

Starck: We always need a little more poetry. It’s in and out. That means if you put the Robin Chair in a salon, it's exactly what Louis XIV had in his castle. We put that outside, and suddenly it is a forest. There is no more carpet; there is grass. There is no more ceiling; it’s a sky. It's not garden furniture, it's really a salon outside.

Why did you call it the RobinWood Deluxe Collection?

Starck: First, because it has wood. And, Robin Hood is one of my strategies. Nobody knows exactly everything I do, from the big projects to a toothbrush. I am the only person in the world who does the two extreme ends of the market. That is a good Robin Hood strategy. He was a guy who took money from the rich to give to the poor. It's what I do. When I make a rocket, I am doing it because I can use high technology. I can experiment with a lot of things and take some of these concepts and their technologies and bring it to the mass market or people who have less money. And everybody is happy. The rich guy is very happy because he has the best thing in the world. Me, I am very happy because I have an advanced research department paid for by the rich guy. The other people are happy because they see product in the market that is affordable.