(Un)forbidden City Collection is an important innovative project created in collaboration with 8 Beijing architects and industrial designers. A cultural exchange exploring the potential of Chinese product design, the designers were asked to design a tray:

Floating Earth Tray, designed by MA Yan Song of MAD Architects, 2012, is designed with a wooden center holding rotating plains of polished stainless steel, seemingly floating. As the plains are rotated, Floating Earth Tray changes, becoming a metaphor for ever-changing earth, ever-changing life. Floating Earth is an elegant sculpture to be enjoyed. It may also be used to hold chocolates, fruit, cheese, or hors d’oeuvres.

“A tray like the earth holds many things. We look at the earth but we only see what rests upon it. She fades from sight and seems not to exist. Yet she persists. A boundless surface upon which all is reflected: The home, the city. An ever-expanding scope. Each rising layer, then, a tower storey. An unscripted space full of kinetic potential”, explains architect MA Yan Song.

Design: MA Yan Song / 2012 / China
Materials: Mirror polished 18/10 Stainless Steel / Wood
Dimensions: 15.5” x 15” x 8.75” H