We're about to recount the tale of mankind's long-standing love/hate relationship with the air, an element as vital to life as fire, earth and water. We've compressed it, expanded it and blown it ad infinitum. In the 50's, it entered our homes as part of the decor...sound strange?

Full Sail into 2000 The following picture is a brief overview of inflatable objects recently developed by the designers of Italy's most prestigious manufacturers of furnishings and decorator items. The trend toward an "inflated" home bright with color. Click on the object you would like to see. In the beginning... If we see the advent of plastic as one of this century's most revolutionary discoveries, the next step (to inflate it) is no smaller a step. The 1950's witnessed the flowering of the plastics industry and the refinement of thermal sealing technology, closing the seams of airtight plastic material. Such techniques were perfected in the 1970's, when the first inflatable products appeared on the market: pool toys, floating mats and air-filled mattresses. A Breath of Fresh Air for the Household Inflatable plastics began to provide alternative solutions to interior problems: furniture and furnishings were given a fresh modern note. Light and easily transportable, these objects could be moved and transformed, unhampered by the constrictions of time and space, in short, the basic principle behind inflatable design, one of the most simple and yielding expressions speaking out against static precepts and rigid materials. Inflatable objects have a rather fluid image which is in a constant state of transformation. It's in their very nature to surprise, and not by means of new and sophisticated technology, but rather by using one of the most available and economic substances around-- air. The Airborne Furniture Revolution The inflatable "bug" bit the US in the 60's, as the design inflatable objects sparked off myriad projects as if responding to the abrupt and shattering quality of the times. The concept embraced the characteristics of its day: the rejection of permanence and the irremovable, while at the same time overturning the most hallowed established images of the standard, middle-class home. The industry began to offer simple, low-cost solutions which flew in the face of accepted concepts of furniture and decor.

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