Alberto Meda: design’s master of lightness

Triennale Milano presents 'Alberto Meda. Tensione e leggerezza’ (Alberto Meda. Tension and lightness), an exhibition on view until 7 January 2024 dedicated to the Italian engineer and designer whose career spans more than 50 years. 

It’s a carefully chosen title: 'Tension has to do with forces; whenever you deal with a structural aspect, you must deal with these forces. It entails understanding how to observe the structure of objects,' Alberto Meda explains. 'At the same time, lightness is essential to me. Not only did I achieve physical lightness, but also visual lightness, thanks to experimental research on composite materials.'

‘Alberto Meda. Tension and lightness’ at Triennale

The exhibition, curated by Marco Sammicheli, director of the Triennale Milano Museum of Italian Design, and staged by Riccardo Blumer, has an experimental format and is divided into three parts: 'We begin with the very serious game of determining what solutions underlie the projects, as well as the intuitions that generated them,' Sammicheli says. 'Then we look at how Alberto Meda approached light, water management, and a specific concept of comfort. Finally, there is a third space outside the exhibition's boundaries: the installation in the monumental hall featuring Foscarini's Chiaroscura and a metallic steel fresco created specifically for the Triennale.' 

The gaps between the marble walls of the museum's grand staircase have been transformed into an installation called 'Luce Scalare', nodding to to Foscarini's lamp. On the mezzanine, the designer's work is summarised by 'Profili di Luce': stainless steel panels backlit by an LED panel, on which the silhouette of the objects that have defined Meda's career has been traced using a laser.

The first section of the exhibition is dedicated to identifying a different use for the objects that the designer has created over the years: Meda subverts some technical aspects by applying another use, and transforming the objects into 'games' that the visitor can play with. 

While turning a coloured filter fan in front of the ‘Titania’ lamp frame, one can experiment with different colour effects. The sounds of the ‘Physix’ chair's structural 'bones' (each component is made with different percentages of fibreglass to help the seat endure mechanical stress) are expressed as a xylophone. 

'We thought that a xylophone was a good way to show the variation of the custom-made material, depending on the use,' says Meda. 'It is critical to convey this because it is an aspect that cannot be seen or perceived. Instead, we realise this complexity in a less didactic and more playful way through sound and experience.'

If that first part of the exhibition challenges the conventions of design exhibition, the second room addresses the fundamental chapters of Alberto Meda's work in a more traditional manner. Several Frame chairs stand out one above the other, suggesting stackability and sculptural presence. Next to it, an example of adaptability and comfort is the 'Meda Gate' seating system, designed for Vitra for waiting areas in large public spaces such as airports. 

Then there's a look at his lighting projects, from 'Jack' for Luceplan (displayed complete with original packaging from 1985) to 'Aledin' for Kartell, designed in 2016 with his son Francesco. Two tables follow, one dedicated to water (from the ‘Water’ jug to filter the tap water, designed for Arabia Finland, to the high-efficiency self-supporting electric radiator 'Origami' for Tubes Radiatori) and the other to composite materials – the perfect example is 'Light Light', the world's first chair made entirely of carbon fibre. 

Meda was among the first to consider how the combination of materials can provide objects with performances as well as durability and longevity: 'From radiators to taps, from jugs to the Solar Bottle, there is also a strong emphasis on sustainability, both in terms of reducing material waste and water management,' says Sammicheli.

'I would like to defeat a certain idea of today, according to which design is simply a flourish, a swirl, a free shape stuck to an object designed by others,' Meda says as he leads us up the museum staircase, showcasing his lighting projects. 'This is not the case, as I hope this exhibition will demonstrate.'

'Alberto Meda. Tensione e leggerezza' is on view until 7 January 2024

Triennale
Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6
20121 Milano 

triennale.org

Alberto Meda's work in pictures