Sage wisdom dictates that attempts at reinventing the wheel are misguided and unproductive.
Subverting the wheel is an approach far more favored. And Studio Razavi Architecture makes a great case for this particular method with its two-pronged, top-heavy, hourglass-shaped Clessidra Table.
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Crafted from Rosa Peralba marble, the Clessidra Table’s ivory-colored veins repeatedly intersect with the otherwise rosy, rust-tinged stone. From a reductionist’s standpoint, it is essentially an exercise in playful inversion: two upside-down cones stacked atop two smaller—but right-side up—cones.
An aerial glance provides a view of the table’s conjoined circles; a side view reveals two sister-like, stuck-together hourglass shapes; and, looking at the table straight-on, from its widest part, the grander tableside seems to dwarf and—from one angle—disappear the smaller half from one’s line of sight.
The piece, carved from a single block of marble, evokes minimalism. Yet its Modernist quirk—the unperturbed top plane—is an Easter egg that reinterprets aestheticians’ eyebrow rule in design terms: Stylistic “sisters”—not “twins”—are ideal for conveying depth. Alas, using perfection as a metric, we feel pretty confident considering the Clessidra Table on par with Brooke Shields’ eyebrows. In other words—it doesn’t get any better than this.
(Photos: Courtesy Studio Razavi/Simone Bossi)
