Alberto Meda

Profile

Born in Tremezzina (Como) in 1945.

Master in Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico of Milan in 1969.

From 1973 technical manager of Kartell, in charge of the development of projects of furniture and plastic laboratory equipments.

Since 1979 freelance industrial designer for various companies: Alfa Romeo Auto, Alias, Alessi, Arabia–Finland,Cinelli, Colombo design, Brevetti Gaggia, JcDecaux, Ideal Standard, Luceplan, Legrand, Mandarina Duck, Omron Japan, Philips, Olivetti, Vitra, etc.

Exibitions

"Creativitalia" Tokio1990, and a personal exhibition at the “Design Gallery”, Matzuia Ginza in Tokio1990.

“XVIII Triennale in Milan” 1992, "The lightness" section of "Il giardino delle cose".

"Mestieri d'Autore "1993 in Siena

"Design, miroir du siècle", at the section "Le sens et la matière", Paris 1993

“Mutant materials in contemporary design“ at MOMA – NewYork 1995,

Meda – Rizzatto exibition at Binnen Galerie–Amsterdam 1996

Lighting Affinities –Milano 1996

Designer of the Year, personal at Salon du Meuble – Paris 1999

"Italia e Giappone design come stile di vita" – Yokohama, Kobe 2001

Design and Elastic Mind– Moma 2008

Triennale di Milano Il Design Italiano oltre le crisi – 2014

Youthful – spazio Domus, Milano 2015

The Bauhaus#itsalldesign. Vitra Design Museum 2015

Teaching and research

From 1983 to 1987 lecturer on industrial technology at Domus Academy.

Seminars at International Design Symposium in Fukui, at Workshop Design Quest in Osaka, and at Design Center in Tokyo.

From 1995 lecturer at Politecnico of Milan "Corso di Laurea di Disegno Industriale" with a design lab.

From 1995 to 1997 member of Board of Designlabor Bremerhaven

From 2003 to 2007 lecturer at IUAV in Venice with design workshops.

From 2016 Member of the Scientific Committee of the Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

Several lectures and seminars such as Chicago, St.Louis at Washington University, Stockolm, Miami, San Paulo, Taipei, Ulm, Istanbul, Toronto, Mexico, HongKong, Firenze, Oslo, Istanbul, Lausanne, Seul, Chicago

Awards

1989 "Compasso d'oro" Lola lamp(Luceplan)

1994 "Compasso d'oro" "Metropoli" lamps (Luceplan)

2008 "Compasso d'oro" MIX lamp (Luceplan)

2011 "Compasso d'oro" Teak table(Alias)

2016 "Compasso d'oro" Flap acoustic panel (Caimi Brevetti)

2005 “Hon Royal Designer for Industry” Londra RSA

2007 "INDEX:award" Solar Bottle

1992 "Design Plus” Titania lamp, Luceplan

1994 "European Design Prize", Luceplan

1995 "Industrie Forum design" Hannover UNI – X family lamps,

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, Salon du Meuble de Paris

2000 Bundespreis Produktdesign Meda chair, Vitra

2001 Good Design Award Chicago Athenaeum Water Jug, Arabia

2002 Reddot Award knives, Iittala Finland

2006 "Design Plus" e “Light of the future” MIX lamp, Luceplan

2012 Best of – Design Plus per OttoWatt, Luceplan

2014 Best of Neocon (U.S.A) Silver Award Flap, Caimi Brevetti

2015 German Design Award Flap, Caimi Brevetti

2016 DesignEuropa Awards (EUIPO) Flap, Caimi Brevetti

2016 Good Design Award Chicago Athenaeum Origami, Tubes

Some products are part of permanent collection of Museum of Modern Art of Toyama and since 1994 The Museum of Modern Art in New York, includes in its Design Collection "Light light" chair 1987, "Soft light" chair 1989, “Longframe” 1991 by Alias, and "On–Off" lamp by Luceplan 1988.

Bibliography

Alberto Meda di Francesca Picchi

Collana Prontuario– Abitare Segesta edizioni – 2003

Il design di Alberto Meda–Una concreta leggerezza

di Domitilla Dardi Ed. Electa 2005

I Protagonisti del design–Hachette 2012 – Alberto Meda

He works and lives in Milan.