Market Talent: Striving for Excellence

-- Interior Design, 5/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Through nearly four decades of invention and recognition, Giancarlo Piretti has banked on flexibility. Seriously. The Plia, his 1969 acrylic folding chair for Castelli, launched his design odyssey. "Since the early Vertebra and Dorsal chairs for Castelli and Vitra in the 1970's and 1980's," he adds, "I've designed several complex mechanisms, for instance backrests that change their angle dynamically according to the natural movement of the body." Today, he has a new vehicle for his passion: simple polypropylene.

History meets technology when KI unveils apparatus-free Strive. The polypropylene in the seating is recyclable, and it's available in a total of six styles based on arm, tablet, color, and upholstery options. Offering flexibility of a more literal kind, slots in the back are for manipulation, not decoration. "To make a curved sheet flex, one needs to make cuts in it," he explains. "The geometry is also designed to stop to the flexing naturally." His inspiration was origami. "I have always been captivated by the idea of a common material like paper creating inconceivable objects with unexpected shapes," he says. "I like thinking I've designed something similar." It seems that the intersection of complexity and simplicity is comfort. 800-424-2432; ki.com. circle 421