The Stone Shelf for Van Den Weghe began as an investigation into traditional craft practices and what they could offer to contemporary design. Van Den Weghe are among the finest natural stone craftspeople in Europe, operating out of their Kortrijk workshops in Belgium, and working with them gave us access to skills and precision that very few stone companies in the world can match. The idea was simple and took a long time to arrive at, as the best ideas often do. Three small wedges are fastened to the wall. The stone shelf itself, measuring one metre by 270 millimetres by 60 millimetres, carries a 7.5 degree taper as it extends outwards from the wall, and that taper is all that is needed to lock the slab in place using nothing more than gravity. There are no screws and no fasteners. The technique is borrowed directly from woodworking, specifically the dovetail joint, which has been used by carpenters for thousands of years to create exceptional structural strength through geometry alone. The shelf was first shown at Biennale Interieur 2016 in Kortrijk, and is available in a range of European stones.
Further Reading
Van Den Weghe
https://www.vandenweghe.be/
