Plinth – A Story Cut From a Stone

Each piece of carefully selected marble is assembled by hand to ensure that the sides line up perfectly.

A favoured medium of the Greeks and Romans in both architecture and art, marble has come to symbolise elegance and sophistication. The Plinth builds upon and subtly subverts that essence, using marble instead as a means to showcase other items, as well as standing as a sculptural item on its own. The Plinth is the result of what’s been cut away, revealing a core of quality and beauty. No piece of marble is alike; that’s because the detailing of each naturally occurring rock is created over time by nature, rendered in limestone or dolomite. The dashes of colour you see are called veins and they are most often made of silt, sand, clay, iron oxides or chert grains found within the original stone. While they may be called impurities in production jargon, it is these splashes of colour and texture that make marble so special. 

All Plinth marble is handcrafted in a small factory in Portugal. Each piece of carefully selected marble is assembled by hand to ensure that the sides line up perfectly. The result is podiums that are consistent in shape and quality while unique in marbling pattern. The black marble, Nero Marquina, comes from the north of Spain, while the white marble, known as Carrara, as well as Calacatta Viola – off-white with striking purple veins – come from Italy. Brown grey marble, called Grey Kendzo, is from Iran. All share a low refraction index, so they allow light to penetrate a few millimetres into the surface before refracting, giving the Plinth its aura of vitality. By utilising simple shapes and the highest possible quality control, MENU allows the marble to speak for itself.

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