Kaari Wall Shelf with Desk - REB010

The Kaari collection by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec marks the first collaboration between the French designers and Artek. In creating a simple yet elegant bent steel band to provide support for a series of furniture, the Paris-based brothers arrived at a practical and adaptable construction principle. In Finnish, Kaari means “arch,” and while the vertical load of table tops and shelves is held by a piece of wood, the bent steel band provides diagonal support similar to an arch.

With antecedents in Alvar Aalto’s work in bent wood, the metal band has a light, fluid outline. It could well have been drawn with a single stroke of a pen.