The Light Light Chair, weighing a mere two pounds, is built with a Nomex honeycomb core and a carbon-fiber surface. The direction of the fiber is strategically placed to counteract the thrust transmitted by the weight of a sitter. Additional unidirectional fibers are applied to reinforce the high-stress joints.
Gallery label from Rough Cut: Design Takes a Sharp Edge, November 26, 2008–October 12, 2009.
Meda believes that "the more complex the technology, the more it is suitable for the production of objects for simple use, with a unitary image, almost organic." He demonstrated this idea with the Light Light Armchair, his first carbon–fiber chair, manufactured in a small series. The chair, which weighs a mere four pounds, is a physical and psychological representation of lightness. User tests conducted with the first prototypes showed that the chair, although sturdy, was too lightweight and too high–tech in appearance for acceptance by a wide public.
Meda started his career in the 1970s as the technical director of the plastics manufacturer Kartell. There he began to forge a unique relationship between technology and design experimentation, incorporating poetry as well as engineering into his imaginative solutions. He subsequently opened his own office in Milan. MoMA's collection includes several of his designs, all of which use technology to achieve fluidity and unity of shape and structure. As a group Meda's designs represent a breakthrough in the complex marriage of advanced technology and objects of everyday use.
Publication excerpt from The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights since 1980, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2007, p. 61.
