The Tables in Our Milan Design Pop-Up Are Literally Unstable
This article is part of Not In Milan, a multi-media festival of culture running alongside Milan Design Week.
The biggest annual event for the furniture and design industry, Milan Design Week, has begun and Highsnobiety is once again making its presence known on the ground. This year, we have launched a cultural festival titled Not In Milan during the city’s prestigious design week.
The project consists of many parts, ranging from product collaborations with local institutions to a packed events schedule, and the physical hub for all things Not In Milan has now opened at Sidewalk Kitchens. It is a product and design gallery space, featuring exclusive furniture that temporarily becomes part of the food court’s furnishings.
Central to the design space is a series of wonky tables designed by Sucuk und Bratwurst titled unstable (2024)—unsTABLE, get it?—which come crafted from oak wood and, thanks to an exclusive collaboration with Marbledworks, also from marble.
The coffee tables are built at a 60-degree angle producing an optical illusion that plays with perspective and perception, appearing to be at a slant depending on the angle you look at them. “It challenges the visitors to think twice about the known and unknown—a change of perspective,” says Sucuk und Bratwurst, who also produced a matching mug, slanted at a 60-degree angle.
“We would characterize [our] furniture as ‘sculptures with a function,’” the design collective tells me via email. “We like to try out new things and enjoy creating new works; in general, we are not afraid to dive into new areas of design.” Last year, during Salone del Mobile.Milano, Sucuk und Bratwurst presented its first furniture design, the alien-shaped ZENOMORPH chair, marking a new venture for the company.
Back in Milan this year, it has teamed up with Marbledworks, a Munich-based luxury design company. “Our version [of the Unstable coffee table] is carved from a single block, making it a monolithic piece,” says Maximilian Huber and Dominic Kim, founders of Marbledworks. “Its solidity, combined with the shape, transforms the material qualities into a light, soft, and dynamic object that we really enjoy.”
Marbledworks also created cylindrical stools for the Not In Milan design pop-up with custom Highsnobiety branding, each one different due to the veining of its signature marble material.
“It is a natural material that has historically found its way into domestic spaces in a very transformative way and survives trends. It can be used for objects in many different ways, giving us endless possibilities to think about,” says Huber and Kim about marble, the material they specialize in using.
“This very durable material, which is sometimes very delicate and difficult to work with, changes its characteristics quite a lot depending on the shape, surface, and color. In the end, we really like the tactile qualities of the material and the challenges of working with it. We are fascinated by creating things with careful detail.”
The design pop-up is open until April 19 and also features a collaborative Not In Milan coffee blend, exclusive menu items, and custom cakes made by Marchesi. You can visit it now at Via Bonvesin de la Riva, 3, 20129 Milano.
