MATTER: You have said many times that you hate to travel—what is it about travel that you hate so much?

STARCK: You know, me, I am the extreme. That means I use more planes than pilots from Air France or any company. I am in the air more than any steward in the world. I take a plane one, two, three to four times a day. It’s an obligation…I hate traveling when in this extreme. For me, it’s a bit personal, I am a dreamer, a professional dreamer. That means the only thing which interests me is mental traveling. I don’t need to move my body, to move materiality to travel. I have no problem to travel by myself with my brain. That’s why for me, [to] move my bones, my flesh and my fat, it’s structurally vulgar, I don’t need it. For me, traveling is an obligation, and I cannot imagine that people can travel for their own pleasure and I cannot imagine that you will spend a lot of money, spend an hour of your life of jet lag, a lot of things, but we shall come back on that, just to spend one week on holiday, for me, that is pretty crazy. For me…I never take holidays, I am always working, but not really working, dreaming. But when I decide to change my place for dreaming, I never am traveling more than 1.5 hours. I always travel light. Whenever I check in, along with my wife--sometimes for one month and seven countries--we have just one small bag. We know how to travel light. We buy only light and small dresses for my wife, light and small equipment. One of our first parameters for things around us is size, small size and reliability. Really, I prefer to stay in my bed. The best travel for me is to stay in my bed with the person I love, or with a good book.

MATTER: I presume you have a bed on your plane then?

STARCK: Yes. Me, I want, I want to forget immediately when I travel. I jump in my plane, I immediately go to sleep and I wake up when we land. I have very good cashmere blankets and things like that.

"I am a dreamer, a professional dreamer.  That means the only thing which interests me is mental traveling."

MATTER: So then, how does your personal experience of traveling influence your design of transportation?

STARCK: There is strictly no experience of travel which can influence my design. I hate it so much - I am always thinking what can be the best solution and what will be the future? Definitively, there are a lot of fake ideas. I can give you some examples—Fashion. Fashion looks like it’s been an idea forever, but fashion is a new idea and fashion will die in the next seven years. Tourism, it’s exactly the same thing, it started in the ‘50s and “far tourism” started in the ‘70s, and far tourism will die in the next five years. And it’s very surprising that nobody sees this movement.

MATTER: What about space tourism?

STARCK: Space, space is something completely different. People will go to space but it is not “far tourism”, it is something special. Yes, people will do it but “far tourism,” that means you go on holidays for Christmas to Thailand, it’s finished. Completely finished. The next tourism will be tourism of proximity. That means, like me, 1.5 hours maximum by train or car. I say that to explain that we have to be very awake…it’s not because something exists that it will always continue. And tourism looks like something eternal, it’s not true…It’s like everything, tourism has a birth, a life and a death. What will be after tourism, after “far tourism”—there are a lot of important elements to create—from vehicles, to hotels to organization.

MATTER: So then, what is your vision for the future of mobility?

STARCK: Mobility—well, really I think we need to make a set of rules. Because nothing is good, nothing is bad when it come to vehicles. As always, it’s how humans use them which is good or bad. Mainly, we use vehicles in a bad way, we don’t use them on the right scale. So, we can say that for 0 - .5 mi, good shoes are good. From .5– 1.5 mi, a moped is perfect. From 1.5 – 5 mi, a light simple scooter of 50cc, like a Vespa, is perfect. From 4.5 – 30 mi, you can use a motorcycle. From 30 - 100 mi, there is a car. From 100 – 300 mi, a train. From 300 - 6000 mi, a plane. From 6,000 to infinity, a rocket, like Virgin Galactic. That means that every vehicle has its own scale of use. The problem is [that] we never use the vehicle with the right scale. That means that for 1 mile, we use a car, which is absolutely ridiculous. Me, I hate cars. But I don’t hate cars for cars. Cars are very smart, very patient, but the way we use [them], destroys humanity and destroys life. Because the more cars, the less there is humanity. That’s why, for vehicles for mobility we must always remember these rules.

STARCK: Absolutely, a chart is a perfect idea!

STARCK: It’s the same thing because you never design for the vehicle. You design thinking what will be the profit for the person who will use this object. That means to design a rocket, basic shoes or a motorcycle, it’s exactly the same thing. How can we input into the chart the appropriate ecological, economical, sexual, political, and ergonomic needs—everything that you can imagine—to finally arrive at the right service for the right destination.

MATTER: What are some of the challenges in designing transportation?

STARCK: As I explained, it’s to have the right vehicle at the right place at the right time for the right movement. Definitively, we know we have a problem of energy. I think the biggest challenge today is to push people to buy vehicles only if they need it. Because today, 80% of people buy cars and other things without need. It’s just because we must have a car—we don’t question it. And today, a car is not the real vehicle of people. A car is a vehicle of ego, of sex, of money but not really of people. If a car was only to move people, it’s absolutely not the car we have today. Absolutely not. Not the same power, not the same speed, not the same machine, not the same body, not so many models. There’s something like…I counted one day…about 1,000 or more, I don’t remember. Too many companies making exactly the same thing. We don’t need so many brands. Perhaps one brand per country, even less could be enough. We don’t need sport cars– you need a car for two, a car for seven and a light truck and a heavy truck, that’s it. That’s why we don’t need so many types.

"Cars are very smart, very patient, but the way we use [them] destroys humanity and destryos life...the more cars, the less there is humanity."

MATTER: Your vision of democratic design has made a generation of well-designed products available to society. Do you think a similar vision could be applied to making luxury modes of travel available en masse such as space travel?

STARCK: Space travel is very, very important. Why am I the creative director of Virgin Galactic? It’s because Virgin Galactic fits perfectly in the history of our evolution. Never forget that, four billion years ago we were bacteria. After we became a fish, a frog, a monkey and today we can call us “super monkey.” The bacteria had no idea of what we would be today. We have made incredible work of mutation in four billion years. And we are exactly in the middle of the story because we know that in 4-billion years, the sun will implode and this world will explode. And us, we have no idea of what we shall be in four billion years. But definitely we know somewhere that we must escape. If you look at the history of our production, you will see that we’ve always wanted to become smaller, lighter and to fly. We are the only animal species dedicated to the ground. We want to fly. We never saw a dog or a cow who wants to fly. Only the birds fly. But why do we want to fly like that? It’s been an obsession from Icarus to the first balloon of Mr. Montgolfier to the Wright brothers—we want to fly. That means we know we must escape. Today, we are at the point that now we are able to go into space. But the problem is until Virgin Galactic, space was owned by the military. That means we could not go. It was impossible for us. That’s why Virgin Galactic is so important—it brings the freedom of space, that means that we—private people, civilian people—we know we can, if we want to, go to space. When it is no longer only military, it means we can also decide what we shall do with space. And I can tell you that it is very important that we decide, and not the military, what we shall do in space. What will be the future. And after, we shall have the democratization of space, because a ticket will become cheaper and cheaper and cheaper and we can say that in less than 10 years, almost everybody will be able to go into space. And that’s just the beginning. It’s a big stair and we are just at the first step. That’s why Virgin Galactic—it’s not just a gadget for rich people like it is today. It’s the first step of a big, big, big, important evolution—of our evolution—of the general revolution of our animal species.

MATTER: So, what is your favorite way to travel?

STARCK: I love to walk. First, walking. I love it. And the second one—I have seven boats, I think and I use a lot of boats.

MATTER: What about your motorcycles?

STARCK: Ah yes, number one is the motorcycle! We, we use only motorcycles. We never use a car. I think I have something like 30 cars. Like all stupid people. And we never, never use it. I think I have also something like 30 motorcycles around the world. And when we get off the plane, the car comes to pick us up and we go directly to the bike. We always use a motorcycle because for me it’s the most well-balanced vehicle. Even when it is rainy, snowing, or cold we use a motorcycle. We have, everywhere in the world, the same model. Same color. Same key. That way, we cannot make mistake.

MATTER: What do you think the biggest challenge in design is right now?

STARCK: To stop design and make politics.

MATTER: What impact do you hope the work you’ve done will have?

STARCK: Oh my God. I’m not sure in my work, if there is a product which is important but perhaps, all of these actions, projects, and products show clearly a consistent way or direction which challenges the limitations of our animal species. I have spoken about biomechanics and ecology for a long, long time. I have spoken about so many things which looked down the road 30 years, 20 years, 15 years in advance to the challenges we have in front of us. That means I am not a designer. I consider myself more like a, like a—how do you say, “a light”? A projector! Like a projector on a car, the light which goes very far, a high-beam. 

MATTER: What’s next?

STARCK: We are working now a lot on pure creativity. Not the application of creativity but pure creativity. I want to consider creativity before design, architecture, music, writing, it’s the application of creativity—that’s why I’m working now to create a university of creativity. 

MATTER: Fantastic.

STARCK: Yes. It is. Peace and love.