Metropoligth is a lamp conceived in 1970 by the German designer Jan Roth and produced by the Design M of the well-known designer Ingo Maurer. In the Plart collection there are two examples of this lamp, one entered the Incutti collection at the end of the 1980s, the other the result of a private donation in 2009. The Metropoligth, white in color, consists of an ovoid shape crossed by large pods. The body of the lamp is composed of two identical bell-shaped elements, joined by a simple interlocking mechanism. The material with which it is made is polystyrene (expanded polystyrene), a material widely used in areas such as packaging or thermal insulation.

Polystyrene or polystyrene, in the semi-expanded form, comes in a granular form, similar to white pearls. In this form, it was used, for example, for the creation of one of the most famous chairs in the furniture design sector, the Sacco Armchair designed by Gatti, Paolini and Teodoro in 1968 and produced by Zanotta. In the expanded form - that of the Metropoligth lamp - polystyrene, on the other hand, is very little used as a design material, but regularly used for insulation, packaging and food packaging, areas in which it is appreciated for its ability to absorbing moisture and being hard but flexible at the same time. In the creative field, expanded synthetic materials such as polystyrene were used in the 1960s as an artistic expression in their own right in works by artists such as Gianni Colombo, Nicola Carrino, Piero Gilardi (later switched to the use of softer and more yielding polyurethane foam ), Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jean Dubuffet and Giuseppe Antonello Leone. As already mentioned, it is more difficult to find its application in the creation of design objects, which makes the Metropoligth lamp almost unique in this sector.