“Passion will, invariably, obliterate convention, conformity, and mediocrity” – Raju Peddada
What is the Milano chair? Milano is a personal statement of the designer, Raju Peddada... it was a heuristical endeavor, one that represents observation of the aspects of reality. Milano's seems to have a visual suppleness, akin to a cellular structure, as it could mutate to another dimension or form... The designer attempted to capture the binary aspect in the two contradictory phenomenons: softness, and its opposite, hardness... Here are some examples: hard discipline and work result in a comfortable life... sleep on hard surfaces, be lithe for life. Conditioning is the key... Japanese folks sleep on futons or Tatami mats on the floor, which is ergonomically beneficial to their posture, spinal health, with several other unintended benefits. So do many rural people in India. I remember my maternal grandparents' hard life. Every day, miles of biking or walking for him – and for her, it a dawn to dusk homemaking, then, respite on a cool hard floor, on just a reed mat... result: both, never hospitalized.
Plush softness, is not a panacea for our ills... comfort is a state of mind. What if John Muir, the great naturalist, was given a soft bed, instead of a mat on the ground under the stars? Milano is an aesthetically charged object that is given to convey softness, but functionally, it's the opposite. It's a concept, that impels us to accept that comfort can be an integral to firmness. Milano's design debunks the conventional notion of comfort, while coyly tantalizing us with its aesthetic flamboyance. The designer postulates on form, that does not always follow the function.
At PEDDADAÂŽ we are not big fans when it comes to the traditional concept of comfort. In our view, the old soft is actually sugar, devious, bad for health. Experiences influence Raju Peddada's design attitude, aesthetic can be a diversionary or playfully misleading aspect of function, and function, distilled from generational usage, in certain real world experiences. Palm leaf fans, that when fanning oneself, issues forth that rich dried leaf smell, woven reed mats, that don't yield like foam, keeping your spine intact from ungainly positions, and how about that dried smell as if one is in the meadow? People who used such organic devices for generations, did not have physiological maladies. Hardness is good. Milano is not something to sink into, it's something deeper, it's hard as reality is, you are conscious of it, it's not a device to sedate or sate oneself with, it's something you sit on to become aware, of the beauty that surrounds you. Our body is a kinetic sculpture, and Milano is its alimentation. There exists an irrefutable dichotomy and duality, in reality. Peddada's inspiration emanates in nature, where soft and supple, seemingly pliant forms, yield incredible strength. Every aspect of Milano's design and fabrication is weighed and measured to achieve optimum visual equilibrium of an independent aesthetic, from function. Milano is made in very small batches in the U.S., and is available directly from PEDDADAÂŽ. For customer service, please email: peddada.peddada@gmail.com or tel: 1-224-281-9048.