Giancarlo Piretti, the folding Plia chair

Giancarlo Piretti (born 1940) designed the most copied folding chair in the world. An Italian designer trained at the Bologna Institute of Art, he signed in 1968 for Castelli the Plia chair: a seat in aluminium and transparent plexiglass, foldable in seconds, which became in a few years one of the best-selling Italian chairs of all time. More than 4 million units sold. His signature? An ingenious, accessible design whose relevance has never wavered.