Alberto Meda

Alberto Meda is an engineer focusing on design, born in Lenno Tremezzina (Como) in 1945. He received a master in mechanical engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 1969. From 1973 he was technical manager of Kartell. In 1979 he started as a freelance industrial designer for various companies. Alberto Meda came to design from engineering, bringing with him a pragmatic mind, and an attention to details in materials and production process, in addition to formal concerns. This applied-science background has shaped Meda's recognizable stamp of elegant simplicity, designs that are at once modern in form and organic in feel. It was this individual sophistication that caught the eye of Rolf Fehlbaum, the legendary chairman of the Swiss manufacturer Vitra, who commissioned the Italian engineer to design a chair some 20 years ago. Thus began a collaboration that continues to this day, resulting in some of the most memorable seating pieces up to and including the MedaPro and the newest design, the MedaPal. While Meda has a strong and abiding relationship with many Italian manufacturers such as Luceplan and Alias, here he talks to writer Eva Prinz about his work with Vitra. Alberto Meda is one of the most representative figures in contemporary Italian design, he claims in an interview Little by little, by following my natural tendencies, I was more and more concentrated on design aspects, and one day I decided to leave Kartell and work as a product engineer.""