“Piana” ALESSICHAIR by Lamm selected for New York MoMA

ALESSI, manufacturer of modern and contemporary household and kitchen design objects, is proud to announce that the company’s first chair, “Piana” designed by David Chipperfield and produced by Lamm, has been selected for inclusion in The Museum of Modern Art’s collection. The chair was introduced for the first time in April 2011 at the International Salone del Mobile in Milan.

Alberto Alessi and David Chipperfield

“Piana” uses cutting-edge material and technology and is the result of a collaboration between Italian manufacturing experts Lamm, and renowned designer David Chipperfield. Light, sturdy, practical and environmentally conscious, this top-quality “Made in Italy” project available in multiple colors has been described by Chipperfield as possessing a “visual expression that is indicative in its simplicity of the function and role of the item itself, bestowing the chair a character of eternity.” Chipperfield continues, “The concept for ‘Piana’ focused on a simple, iconic, general-purpose folding chair, easily recognizable as such.” Made from 100% recyclable polypropylene reinforced with glass fiber, the three parts of the chair rotate around a single axis, and the finely engineered supporting structure and mechanism are hidden within the components of the chair itself. The matte finish and tactile qualities of the polypropylene render the chair both comfortable and durable; it folds completely flat and is horizontally stackable.

In describing this new ALESSI archetype, Alberto Alessi, president of ALESSI spa, says, “From a creative point of view, I consider it a masterstroke in the most difficult area for designers: a type of product that many artists have tried their hand at throughout history but with so few excellent results. The revelation in this design has much to do with geometric abstraction and the search for great formal simplicity: rigor and precision as the typical qualities of the designs of David Chipperfield.”

Eugenio Morselli, president of Lamm, explains, “At Lamm, our business is making chairs; we have been producing them for over 50 years and we are very good at it. We strive to make them comfortable, durable, safe, and, above all, beautiful. We want them to be 100% made in Italy. In our partnership with ALESSI, a master of the home environment whose very name is synonymous with domestic design, we sought to create and launch a foldable, multi-functional seat, minimalist in terms of content, environmentally friendly, and made with lightweight materials. David Chipperfield eventually presented us with ‘Piana,’ the perfect synthesis of beauty and rigor; an achievement we will certainly be proud of for the next 50 years.”