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Jan.9, 2005 -Jan.16, 2005 |
Lightweight, But Not Taken Lightly
One of Italy's leading designers Alberto Meda makes effective use of man-made materials
By Mark Curtis
Originally Published: 2004-02-08
Alberto Meda is one of Italy's leading designers, and with a strong engineering background - Meda has a master's degree from the Politecnico di Milano - his work lends credence to the widely held belief that form follows function.
The innovative use of 20th century materials such as aluminum, carbon fibre and plastic have become a hallmark of Meda's designs, not surprising perhaps because he was product development manager at plastics giant Kartell for most of the 1970s. Working with legendary designers such as Gae Aulenti gave the Milan-born and bred engineer his first taste of product design and, despite his technical background, Meda embraced design like a fish to water. "Engineers are not generally expected to have an aesthetic attitude," Meda has said. "I have always found that unacceptable and rebelled against it, because it means separating thinking from doing". As for his preference for man-made materials, the engineer and designer says, " I prefer materials like plastics and aluminum because they are light and make possible the integration of functions and the reduction of the number of components".
From his characteristic choice of materials, therefore, Meda specializes in products which are typically lightweight and, outwardly at least, simple in appearance. One of the most recent examples of his approach is the FrameTable for Italian manufacturer Alias. The table is designed as a convenient worktable to be used when existing work surfaces in a room are insufficient for the task at hand. "We realized the light structure using aluminum injected legs and aluminum and composite aluminum sheet and a corrugated core for the top," Meda told Tandem recently. Because of its primary function as a supplementary work surface, strong consideration was given to the FrameTable when not in use. Meda designed table legs which, when folded, have a sculptural quality suitable for display. "There's no reason to hide it," the designer says of his recent product for Alias.
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