Industrial Design - Milan Furniture, concreteness and experimentation     by Fiorella Bulegato   The official figures for the 49th edition of the Milan furniture fair testify to an increase in the number of visitors representing both the professional sector – with almost 300,000 in total – and the general public (over 300,000). These encouraging numbers demonstrate how the Milan show is still the most important of its kind in the world, even though the sector’s current problems are no secret. Just a few days after the expo opened, Rosario Messina, president of FederlegnoArredo, said that after last year, which was “the worst our industry has ever experienced”, businesses need more than ever to keep on investing in research and innovation. In other terms, this means that they need to keep following the path trodden for years by the more farsighted companies, which reconciles experimentation with concrete reality. This approach is perfectly expressed, for instance, in the prototypes by Riccardo Blumer and Matteo Borghi for Alias. Concept revolutionises the established perception of the function of the chair. The intended user is still someone obliged to sit for prolonged periods of time, but the object itself is no longer static and passive, and is designed instead to encourage movement, to stimulate and exercise the muscles. The designers have created a chair consisting of a saddle with an ergonomic backrest, which is supported by a tubular steel structure and rests, at the front, on a curved wing element. This latter feature shifts the body out of the usual vertical position, allowing the user to rotate around a single point, using the feet on the floor and the contact between the thighs and the saddle to control his or her movements. (The article continues in Auto & Design n. 183, page 65)