Tavagnacco (UD), Italy
“I am pleased to be sharing my Secret Cubic Shelves with a broader audience. What makes the shelves so special is that they are constructed around absence, and reflect thereby a hidden geometry that eludes immediate comprehension, ” said Icelandic designer-artist Olafur Eliasson.
“Within their filigree structure, they bear the traces of past debates and host as-yet unthought futures.”
Olafur Eliasson’s new Secret Cubic Shelves for Moroso was derived from a stackable rhomboid module that has been featured in his oeuvre since 2015 – inborn from the project “Greenlight – An artistic workshop,” the shelves reflect the artist’s intensive, decades-long engagement with geometry.
The Greenlight lamp is a stackable module originally developed by Eliasson’s long-time collaborator, the mathematician Einar Thorsteinn (1942–2015), as part of his long-standing research into five-fold symmetry.
Eliasson has long been interested in stackable space-filling forms as alternatives to conventional building techniques and for their suggestion of infinite continuation.
The Quasi Brick, for example, forms the basis for the crystalline facades of Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre, created in collaboration with Henning Larsen Architects and completed in 2011.
The form for the shelves, based on the golden triangle, can be combined to form luminous sculptures or sprawling modular environments.
“Secret Cubic Shelves” is built around a rhomboid negative space delineated by the modules
Originally produced as a prototype in multiplex and steel in 2017, this new edition is made entirely of iron (recycled and recyclable), with a non-toxic powder coating.
The solid and durable construction and short supply chain guarantee reduced waste of resources, raw materials, and energy and, consequently, a lower environmental impact. The shelving system was created in collaboration with technical partner Fantin.
Project: Secret Cubic Shelves
Designer: Olafur Eliasson
Manfacturer: Moroso SpA
Photographers: Alessandro Paderni
