WHEN BILLIARDS BECOMES SCULPTURE

The first collaboration between Luca Nichetto and RS Barcelona reinvents the pool table as a contemporary design object

There is a question Luca Nichetto asked himself before he began: what is a pool table, really, beyond everything one expects from it? No visual nostalgia, no ornamentation, none of the codes that traditionally define this object. Only material, proportion, construction and the way a form inhabits a room.

AL13 is the result. The first game table ever designed by the Venetian designer, and his first collaboration with RS Barcelona, a brand that has spent years exploring the boundary between game object and contemporary furniture. A boundary that, with AL13, becomes deliberately difficult to locate.

A name that says everything

AL is the chemical symbol for aluminium. 13 is its atomic number. The material is not a technical choice: it is the starting point for the entire project. A continuous aluminium shell, formed through die-casting and extrusion, wraps around the playing surface to create a silhouette that appears suspended over two monolithic legs. The industrial precision of the metal is softened by a leather-upholstered profile running around the entire perimeter, a tactile detail that adds warmth without interrupting the object’s continuous geometry. Solid and light, technical and tactile, precise and unexpectedly soft.

An object that does not need to be played to make sense

AL13 is conceived to inhabit a space even when nobody is playing. Its proportions and sculptural volume make it a centrepiece in residential interiors, hospitality environments and contemporary social spaces. It is not a pool table trying to look like furniture, nor furniture pretending to be a pool table. It is both, without having to choose.

Billiards is, by nature, a slow game. It asks people to gather around a physical object, to stand, move, wait, observe, talk. AL13 amplifies that physicality: walking around its perimeter, resting a hand on its leather edge, preparing a shot, or simply sharing the space around the table all become part of the experience. As Nichetto puts it, good design is about having fun. In AL13, play is not an accessory added to the design. It is its reason for existing.

Available in an 8-foot American pool configuration, AL13 comes in four finishes: dark green, terracotta, dark brown and off-white.

Not to be missed: today, 15 October, Luca Nichetto takes centre stage at Barcelona Design Week in a conversation at Cubiñá, moderated by Jazmín Castresana.

AL13

Design: NICHETTO®, Luca Nichetto Studio

Brand: RS Barcelona

Year: 2026