ROMAN NUMERALS AND THE POETICS OF TIMELESSNESS

Designed by Marie-Christine Dorner, the coffee table ROMA highlights ZEUS’s construction precision and the harmony between form, material and function

ZEUS is a landmark of avant-garde and minimalist design since ever. His historical headquarters is a large 1950s garage located in Corso San Gottardo, in the heart of the Porta Ticinese Canals district, which hosted some of the most iconic Fuorisalone evenings in its golden years, before Milan Design Week grew into a city-wide programme open to audiences beyond the design industry.

For forty years, ZEUS has been committed to high-quality small-series design, combining minimalism, functionality, and affordability in technologically advanced industrial products that are still handcrafted, for a new way of living.

Among these, the coffee table Roma, designed by Marie-Christine Dorner, highlights ZEUS’s construction precision and the harmony between form, material and function.

The Roman numerals that make up the structure, crafted from slender steel rod, together with the painted metal top, create a perfect balance between lightness and solidity.

Roma is available in two sizes, with two diameters and heights. The structure and top are made of sablé copper-black painted metal.

The Roma coffee table reflects the French designer’s ongoing research into material clarity and essential form, translating her approach to matter into a precise yet understated presence within the domestic landscape.

MARIE CHRISTINE DORNER

Marie Christine Dorner is a French interior architect and designer with a multicultural style that combines traditional savoir-faire with advanced technologies. Her work ranges from interior architecture to furniture design, scenography, lighting, jewellery, and tableware, always maintaining a strong focus on the relationship between human beings and their environment.

After a formative experience in Japan, where she collaborated with Teruo Kurosaki and presented her first collection of origami-inspired furniture (with an introduction by Philippe Starck), she started her own practice in Paris and became a leading figure in the new wave of French design.

Her major projects include the renovation of Hotel La Villa in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the restaurant of the Comédie-Française, and the presidential stand for the Bastille Day parade in Paris. After twelve years in London—where she also taught at the Royal College of Art at the invitation of Ron Arad—she returned to Paris and founded Dorner Design in 2008.

A graduate of École Camondo, she received the Grand Prix du Design (1995) and was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2012 by Frédéric Mitterrand.