Piuma armchair

2016 saw the completion of the “Piuma” project by Piero Lissoni. The chair is one of the most revolutionary and en- terprising products in Kartell’s repertoire of technology and materials. It took three years of intensive research to settle on the unusual blend needed to create Piuma’s basic design: a car- bon- lled thermoplastic polymer compound that gives the structure greater mechanical rigidity and a lower weight. This is a compound that comes from completely different sectors of the industry - automotive and aeronautics - and was therefore completely unprecedented in the world of furnishings. By applying its injection moulding techniques in a sophisticated new way that was designed especially for this material, an exclusive in the world of industrial design, Kartell has managed to create a chair that measures just a few millimetres thick (2 mm max), resulting in an ultra-light product (barely 2.2 kg). It is the rst time that a material containing carbon bre has been injection moulded, and for an aesthetic, stylish product at that. Thanks to this un- precedented mix of materials, the Piuma is not only extremely light and slender but also incredibly durable, exible, suitable for outdoor use and foldable.