Cantilevered granite forms developed
by Zaha Hadid for Citco shelving

Milan 2014: architect Zaha Hadid has cantilevered a series of elongated strips of black granite to create a fluid storage unit for Italian brand Citco.

Zaha Hadid‘s Tela Shelving for Citco is carved from a single piece of black granite into interlinked elements, to make the heavy stone look as weightless as possible.

“Tela is a shelving system characterised by an interesting dichotomy: the solidity of the black granite of which it is composed seemingly dissipates with the elongated cantilevers,” said Hadid.

Shelves are connected to each other by sloping sections that support the cantilevers on both sides, so each of the three levels looks like a wavy line when viewed straight on.

This group of connections is offset from the centre of the unit and make the shelves appear to have been pulled up from a single flat piece of stone.

“At the centre of the configuration, its structural core, are the interweaved shelves which appear to open and unfold from a single surface to follow parallel trajectories,” Hadid said.

Citco displayed the shelving on its stand at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, which concluded on Sunday.

Photographs are by Jacopo Spilimbergo.

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