Its built-in bookshelves and storage slots filled with outdated political books – anything but ‘light reading’ – this solid concrete table is as much an artistic statement about permanence and change as it is an actual piece of functional furniture.

Part of the idea is to show the balance of ‘fixed’ history and our more ‘fluid’ writings about factual events, which evolve and shift as our understanding of historic happenings changes over time. The configuration of the volumes set inside the shelf slots is as ephemeral as the books tucked into the shelves themselves – visitors can remove, add and change the location of these as well.

Manufacturer IVANKA and artist Janos Hubler put a good deal of consideration into each angle and slot of this HUBLER Table. The rough-but-solid form-cast concrete structure below is visible from the sides but also from above, thanks to the thin glass tabletop that provides a see-through surface for those sitting right at the table.

As an experiential piece, it is engaging, thoughtful and thought-provoking but … even if you could find something like this for sale and buy it for your own home, how would you find someone to deliver it? As a cast-in-place concrete shelving solution, however, this could be the basis for one very creative structural library wall storage system.