Palma was born from a "challenge" posed by Meritalia® to Francesco Meda: to create a seating system with a vaguely bourgeois and elegant aura that nonetheless preserves the company's avant-garde spirit; but which is also functional, and not excessively eccentric. Francesco Meda answers the question "what sofa would you put in your home?" by imagining a possible, almost archetypal sofa, drawing on the best of traditional Italian design heritage, but reinterpreted in a "radical" key and maintaining the recognizability that has always distinguished the brand.
This sofa, which is completed in its ideal extension with the matching armchair, is characterized by a strong contrast between the cushions and the shell: the structure is leather and neutral, while the backrest and seat cushions are made of soft chenille. The composed rigidity of the "lounge" sofa is also broken down by the freedom of the cushions, which can be moved at will.
Rationality combines with softness, formal rigor is softened in the rounded shapes of the cushions, while a graphic and subtle line designs the profiles, conceptually linking what might seem irreconcilable.
Palma was conceived based on careful ergonomic criteria so that the person sitting or lying down feels comfortable. Meda's intention, in fact, was to create a "human-scale" composition, referencing the functionalist research of Modernism, but also radical compositional freedom. The artisanal skill in processing traditional materials interacts with the freshness of contemporaneity.
Palma is therefore the result of a complex creative process – developed through close collaboration with Meritalia® – to find innovative solutions in the domestic space that favor conviviality and emotional sharing of spaces without distorting the shape of the sofa, which has become part of the collective imagination.®
