Over the past decade or so, floating shelves have become somewhat ubiquitous in the minimal design world. With support mechanisms attached directly into the wall, they made legs obsolete, an effect that rendered cleaner lines. Now, those shelves have reached their next phase: invisibility.
Designed by Japanese duo YOY (Naoki Ono and Yuki Yamamoto) the shelves are being unveiled right now at Milan Design Week. Simply titled “Shelf,” the work is a series of products — a vase, bookshelf and photo frame — that take advantage of the visual completion effect.
“The objects are placed in mid air at an even level to create the perception of a shelf that doesn’t exist,” explains the designers. The trick, as you’ll see below, is really quite simple though. Each object gets attached to the wall and, when combined together, creates the illusion of invisibility.
If you’re attending Milan Design Week you can see YOY’s shelf, which is part of a larger exhibition titled Existence. It’s on view through April 14, 2019 at Galleria Clio Calvi Rudy Volpi.
