The designer: Philippe Starck is an internationally acclaimed French creator, designer and architect. This untiring and rebellious citizen of the world, who considers it his duty to share his ethical and subversive vision of a fairer planet, creates unconventional objects whose purpose is to be "good" before being beautiful. Most of his designs have become cult objects, and his hotels are timeless icons that have added a new dimension to the global cityscape. An enthusiastic advocate of sustainability, this visionary recently developed the revolutionary concept of "democratic ecology" by creating affordable wind turbines for the home, scon to be followed by innovative wooden prefabricated ecological houses and solar boats. He himself lives, with his wife Jasmine, mostly on airplanes, and in Paris, Burano, and on his oyster farm in the southwest of France.