Coffee Table

An industrial trolley used at the FontanaArte plant to transport glass: this was the object that inspired Gae Aulenti to design her Tavolo con Ruote. It is a specimen of intuitive design that skips the drawing board stage and goes straight from the idea of an everyday item to the prototype stage. This wheeled table replaces the factory trolley’s wooden shelf with a chunky sheet of beveled glass – a tribute to the company’s production history – and fits free-rolling industrial wheels. The nature of the object and its intended use are transformed by replacing just one simple part.