Stone-Ideas.com 
A constant discussion between architects, designers and stone people is how thick natural stone has to be so that it still looks like real stone, not just like a cheap coating on a facade or a piece of furniture. The Draenert company from Lake Constance is now making a completely new contribution to these debates: The legs of the “Paramount“ tables and console are designed in such a way that the entire piece of furniture appears solid on the one hand and yet still looks and is light.
The company has used a few geometric and stone-technical tricks to achieve this, but without devaluing the material.
One remembers the problem of solid stone in furniture construction: Angelo Mangiarotti’s famous “Eccentrico“ table from 1971 proclaims the solidity of the stone together with an almost floating form – but, depending on the variant, it weighs a good 300 kg (see link below)!
The designer Gino Carollo designed the “Paramount“ table and console for Draenert. The company’s press people write about him: “He is always concerned with bringing together the tension between lightness and the natural stone material in a playful way.“
He took two paths to do this: one comes from the stonemasonry trade and is well known, the other uses geometry, i.e. applies the knowledge of angles and lines to the shape of the table legs.
It is the course of the veins in the stone that makes the table legs appear solid. They come from one side and continue around the corner to the other.
In reality, these are two-centimeter-thick panels, which have proven themselves in many pieces of furniture at Draenert. Inside, the legs have a supporting metal structure.
The geometry gives the table legs additional lightness: They are trapezoid-shaped, meaning they have a shorter side at the top and a longer side at the bottom, or vice versa.
And that’s not all: Each leg is tapered a little like a wedge.
The table is available in two different sizes and with a selection of 150 types of stone.
It is also possible to combine a Paramount with two others to make a really long piece. In such cases, the table can also be equipped with a conference system. Then Paramount becomes “the center of every high-quality meeting room,“ write the press people, without exaggeration.
Photos/Renderings: Draenert
