Blow up sheet metal

Inflated sheet steel units – at first sight it looks like a fanciful novelty but in fact this is advanced technology which has been developed at the CAAD (Computer Aided Architectural Design) department of the ETH in Zurich and has already been successfully implemented. The architect Oskar Zieta, who has been working with this professorship for eight years, has now desig-ned a series of inflated sheet steel furniture which not only proves that the technology is ready for series production but also demonstrates the striking look of these almost sculptural objects. Zieta produces the Plopp stool in his home country Poland and markets it through the Danish manufacturer HAY. We met him in Berlin, where he was awarded the YDMI (Young Designers Meet Industry) Prize.