Marble Time

No, this article is not about a new cultural and historical period of human development.
Yes, we’ll show you how to use marble in the product design.

NOT TABLE BY NENDO

In this game, Nendo played ordinary cards – a simple material and form familiar to all. But the studio looked at the project from a different angle. A marble table on four legs is like calligraphic handwriting, neatly written and right-slanted.

The concept of the table was developed for the Italian brand Marsotto Edizioni specialises in marble products. Material weight is often perceived as a negative factor, but in the Japanese interpretation, marble looks light and felicitous.

MARBLE PLATES BY RETEGUI FOR THOSE WHO ARE TIRED OF SWEEPING THE BROKEN DISHES PIECES

Marble tableware will serve you forever and even longer. Batela plates are simple, and laconic, with a deep colour and slightly visible graininess on the surface of polished marble slabs.

LUNA TABLE BY ZAHA HADID

The monolithic table of white Carrara marble for CITCO is the research of abstraction and shape distortion. As the base, the designer chose a tabletop continuing it with curved, wave-like legs. Small bowls on the tabletop transform the rigid two-dimensional surface into a third dimension.

TABLE LAMP ANTUMBRA

The object of two marble plates is created by the Italian marble specialist Pietre di Monitillo in tandem with the British design studio Magnus Long. The lamp metaphorically depicts a solar eclipse. The front panel made of Black Marquina is the Moon, while the back panel of the white Carrara marble represents the Sun.

The name Antumbra comes from astronomy and means the lighter area of a shadow (`umbra` in Latin) that appears beyond the umbra. The black marble panel blocks the light emitted by the white marble plate so sun rays form the halo.

CURL CHAIR BY RIVA 1920

The sculptural chair perfectly complements every interior, from a classic to a contemporary one. The seat is made of textured marble, and the frame – is of walnut wood.

MARBLE SCUPTURES

In the hands of the Italian Fabio Viale (Fabio Viale), monolithic marble blocks transform into plasticine. The sculptor imitates a variety of materials – from rough paper to porous foam.

The works are so realistic and accurate that you can easily confuse the marble planes with paper ones. Thickness, texture, and shape are also misleading. To enhance the illusion, the sculptor even experiments with smells. For example, marble tires smell like rubber.

ARCO LAMP BY THE FLOS

A floor lamp on a block of marble is a veteran in the world of product design. This ARCO lamp by the FLOS is created far in 1962. The object allows adjusting an arc length for a comfortable self and rotating the structure to the left/right/again to the left (as you want).

Another advantage – the floor lamp can serve as a source of both the main and additional lighting.

• Marble is material with history. As Michelangelo said: “The sculpture is already there in the raw stone; the task is merely to eliminate the unnecessary parts of the stone.” Today, marble has become more affordable, but modern designers have a lot in common with ancient sculptors. They create not just a practical and functional object, but the eyecatcher – a thing that strikes the eye and surprises. Many brands invest in technologies to make the material more flexible, lightweight and versatile. So new guises of marble in product design are only a matter of time.