A few months before his passing Chí-An De Leo’s (Rice co-founder) father Giulio gave him an archive of his original furniture designs and drawings. Chí-An sought to revive the designs — adding his own sensibility. Playing with material, joinery, and finishing techniques, Chí-An is bringing new life to Giulio’s work. This table was originally designed for wood. Chí-An experimented with reproducing the table in steel and glass. The challenge was joining glass to steel. Chí-An was seeking a way to join without having to use any extra materials, in doing so keeping the design true to its original form. He engineered a method to join the glass to steel using purely the base materials and gravity. This intimate, yet strong piece brings 70’s chic modernism, art deco sensibility an unexpected contemporary execution.