Alberto Meda

Alberto Meda (born 1945) is an Italian engineer and designer. His work is held in museums around the world. He lives in Milan.

Early life

Meda was born in Tremezzina, in the Italian province of Como in 1945, and graduated with a laurea in mechanical engineering at the Politecnico di Milano in 1969.

Career In 1973 he became the technical director and head of planning at Kartell, in charge of furniture and plastic laboratory equipment projects.

Design In 1979 he worked as a freelance industrial designer for companies such as Alfa Romeo Auto, Alias, Alessi, Arabia-Finland, Cinelli, Colombo design, Brevetti Gaggia, JCDecaux, Ideal Standard, Luceplan, Legrand, Mandarina Duck, Omron Japan, Philips, Olivetti, and Vitra.

Meda came to design from engineering, bringing a pragmatic approach and attention to details in materials and production process. His applied science background shaped designs that are modern in form, and organic in feel. This sophistication caught the eye of Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of Swiss manufacturer Vitra, who commissioned the engineer to design a chair. This collaboration resulted in seating pieces such as the MedaPro and the MedaPal.

Teaching and research From 1983 he was a lecturer on industrial technology at Domus Academy,

Awards 1990"Creativitalia" (Tokio1990) e una personale alla Design Gallery di Matzuia Ginza 1992 XVIII Triennale, 'La leggerezza' sezione del 'Il Giardino delle cose' 1992 "Design Plus" Titania lamp, Luceplan 1993 "Mestieri d'autore" (Siena) 1994 "European Design Prize", Luceplan 1995 "Mutant materials in contemporary design" al MOMA-(New York) 1995 "Industrie Forum design" Hannover UNI – X family lamps 1996 "Meda-Rizzatto" alla Galerie Binnen (Amsterdam) 1996 "Industrie Forum design" Hannover Titania Clamp lamp 1997 Good design Gold Prize–Japan Meda chair, Vitra 1998 I.D design review 'Best of category' Meda chair, Vitra 1999 Designer of the year, personale al Salon du Meuble (Parigi) 1999 Designer of the year, Salon du Meuble de Paris 2000 Bundespreis Produktdesign, Meda chair, Vitra 2001 "Italia e Giappone: design come stile di vita" (Yokohama, kobe) 2001 Good Design Award Chicago Athenaeum Water Jug, Arabia 2002 Reddot Award knives, Iittala Finland 2005 "Hounorary Royal Designer for Industry" Londra RSA 2006 "Design Plus" e "Light of the future" MIX lamp, Luceplan 2007 "INDEX:award" Solar Bottle 2008 Design and Elastic Mind- (MOMA) 2012 Best of – Design Plus per OttoWatt, Luceplan 2014 Triennale di Milano Il Design Italiano oltre le crisi 2014 Best of Neocon (U.S.A) Silver Award Flap, Caimi Brevetti 2015 Youthful – spazio Domus, (Milano) 2015 The Bauhaus#itsalldesign. (Vitra Design Museum) 2015 German Design Award Flap, Caimi Brevetti 2016 DesignEuropa Awards (EUIPO) Flap, Caimi Brevetti 2016 Good Design Award Chicago Athenaeum Origami, Tubes 2017 Red Dot with Frame 52, Alias 2018 Red Dot Best of the Best with Aledin lamp, Kartell