Joe Doucet designs flat-pack marble furniture for New York's Cooper-Hewitt museum
New York 2014: to celebrate New York design week, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum commissioned designer Joe Doucet to create a limited edition collection of "snap fit" marble tables.
![Snap Fit Marble Tables by Joe Doucet](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/05/Snap-Fit-Marble-Tables-by-Joe-Doucet_dezeen_1.jpg)
The Annex flat-pack coffee and side tables were designed by Joe Doucet for the shop at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Made entirely of white marble, the tables rely on gravity to securely join them together.
![Snap Fit Marble Tables by Joe Doucet](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/05/Snap-Fit-Marble-Tables-by-Joe-Doucet_dezeen_3.jpg)
"There is a beauty in economy," said Doucet. "I wanted something fresh for the museum without trying to be just a showpiece. It is the National Design Museum and not an art museum. I wanted to create something liveable yet something that made very apparent the thought that a designer puts into project."
![Snap Fit Marble Tables by Joe Doucet](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/05/Snap-Fit-Marble-Tables-by-Joe-Doucet_dezeen_2.jpg)
"The contradiction between the notion of self-assembly and such a luxury material was the point of the pieces – a high-value piece of furniture, with almost no waste and delivered in the most efficient form possible," he added.
![Snap Fit Marble Tables by Joe Doucet](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/05/Snap-Fit-Marble-Tables-by-Joe-Doucet_dezeen_5.jpg)
Each Annex table is made from three pieces of flat marble. The two pieces that form the base each have a slit cut into them that enables them to be fitted together forming an X shape. The tabletop has a corresponding hole cut into it, so that it will fit on top, holding the table together.
"They are delivered flat packed and are user-assembled," Doucet explained. "It takes two people and about thirty seconds to put them together. Once assembled, they are quite robust and very structurally stable."
![Snap Fit Marble Tables by Joe Doucet](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/05/Snap-Fit-Marble-Tables-by-Joe-Doucet_dezeen_7.jpg)
"I chose an Arabesque white marble, as the subtle change in grain direction accentuates the support tabs which form the X shape on top of the tables," he continued. "The sheets are milled to a precise thickness, then water-jet cut, and then hand-honed. I wanted each piece to have a specific texture that I likened to touching the leg of Michelangelo's David."
The tables were unveiled during New York design week, which took place earlier this month. They follow a revival of marble in contemporary furniture design that we noticed during Milan design week in April.
Photos are by Kendall Mills.