Carved in Time: How Marbledworks is Redefining Contemporary Stone Design

In stone, time turns tactile—a permanent record of ancient sediment, intense heat, and tectonic movement pressed deep into solid matter. At Marbledworks, that deep geological narrative is carried forward into contemporary design. Founded in 2022 by Maximilian Huber and Dominic Kim, the German design studio and manufacturer oversees the entire chain of creation—from initial sourcing and conceptual design to final production—from its headquarters just northeast of Munich, where the workshop and office share a single roof.

The studio’s portfolio explores a delicate yet powerful tension between mass and lightness. It manifests in the structural logic of the Hex Table System, the liquid, fluid contours of the Jelly side table, and the puzzle-like, assembled fragments of the Triptychon vases. Through high-profile collaborations with forward-thinking architects and artists, Marbledworks continually expands this dialogue, transforming stone and elemental materials from static, inert substances into a living, breathing practice. In conversation, Huber and Kim reflect on an evolving body of work: a slow translation through which heavy matter is coaxed into elegant form.

Main Facts

• Founding & Location: Established in 2022 by Maximilian Huber and Dominic Kim, Marbledworks operates a combined design studio and production hall northeast of Munich, Germany.
• Core Philosophy: The studio investigates the tension between weight and lightness, prioritizing "machine-assisted craftsmanship," local accountability, and a profound respect for finite materials.
• Signature Collections: Key series include the modular Hex Table System (combining anodized aluminum profiles with stone tops), the tactile, erosion-inspired Jelly side table, and the Triptychon vases, which repurpose stone offcuts.
• Material Sourcing: Raw stone is ethically and selectively sourced from international quarries in Italy, Turkey, and Brazil, while assembly, metalwork, and carpentry are executed locally within a thirty-kilometer radius of the Munich studio.
• Recent Milestones: The studio showcased its material experimentation during Berlin Art Week 2025, partnering with renowned Berlin-based architecture practice Gonzalez Haase AAS.

Chronology: From Shared Visions to a Munich Workshop

The partnership behind Marbledworks was forged long before the company was officially registered. While both founders moved in overlapping circles through friends and family, their professional paths initially lay in entirely different fields.

"Dominic was in architecture, and I was in finance, but our paths kept crossing," recalls Maximilian Huber. What began as casual, friendly exchanges regarding design, spaces, and interiors gradually crystallized into a shared philosophy. For Huber, the pull toward stone was practically in his blood; his family has worked within the stone industry for four generations.

"Dominic reached out with thoughts on furniture and interiors," Huber notes. "Since I already knew the stone world inside and out, it turned into a much longer conversation. Within months, we decided to build something together. We each walked away from our corporate roles, and that was the true start of Marbledworks."

Integrating Disciplines and Scale

The merging of architecture and business/material lineage proved to be a fertile foundation. Dominic Kim explains that the studio’s output is driven by spatial context rather than isolated object creation. "It’s not just about making standalone objects," Kim observes. "It’s about how they sit within a space, how they speak to their immediate environment. As an architect, that has always been my primary entry point."

Even the studio’s name carries a deliberate, playful duality. "Marbledworks" serves simultaneously as a nod to the natural marbling patterns found within stone and a literal description of the rigorous, physical act of working the material.

Early in their venture, the duo traveled extensively to Italy, visiting heritage quarries and high-volume factories to study extraction, cutting techniques, and large-scale refinement. These trips were crucial in shaping their operational and ethical framework. "Seeing how industrial systems generate their own massive streams of by-products was an eye-opening experience," Kim says. "We realized an offcut or waste piece from one primary process could easily become the exciting starting point for another. We began to look at stone not as a rigid, static block, but as something inherently open to transformation."

Supporting Data & Operational Insights

Operating out of a unified workspace near Munich, Marbledworks deliberately rejects the anonymous, hyper-accelerated cadence of global mass production in favor of a tightly controlled local ecosystem.

The Under-One-Roof Workflow

"Our studio sits directly above the production hall," Kim details. "You can hear the saws, the diamond polishing machines, and the overhead cranes at work. We can literally walk downstairs to test prototypes and adjustments in real time."

While the raw stone is imported from select geological origins—predominantly Italy, Turkey, and Brazil—the rest of the supply chain is hyper-localized. Local carpenters, metalworkers, and fabricators operate within a tight thirty-kilometer radius of the Munich base.

Machine-Assisted Craftsmanship

The manufacturing process relies on a harmonious hybrid of high-precision digital tools and traditional handwork.

• Digital Accuracy: Computer-guided machinery ensures precise structural cuts, interlocking joints, and accurate tolerances.
• Human Character: "Machines help with raw accuracy, but the human hand gives character," Kim explains. "We call it machine-assisted craftsmanship. Every single surface is finished manually by skilled artisans. That is ultimately what sets our work apart from standard industrial output."

Every piece bears subtle, intentional traces of its making—exposed edges, precise joins, and touchable surfaces that chronicle its evolution from a geological slab into a domestic artifact.

Official Responses & Design Philosophy

In their reflections on contemporary manufacturing, the founders are vocal about the public misconceptions surrounding natural stone. In an era dominated by cheap, synthetic replicas and fast-furniture chains, stone is often drastically undervalued.

"People see a marble bowl for fifteen euros at a chain store and assume stone is cheap," Huber remarks. "But that price tag doesn’t reflect the labor, the transit, or the origin. Stone is finite. It takes immense time, heavy machinery, and specialized skill to handle properly. People often fundamentally misunderstand that."

This acute awareness dictates every corporate and creative decision the studio makes, from raw material selection to final assembly. Marbledworks operates deliberately on a long timescale. Because stone is a non-renewable resource, the founders believe that permanence carries a profound ethical responsibility.

Furthermore, this sense of responsibility extends to the practical realities of modern living. Clients frequently relocate across cities and countries. Consequently, the studio engineers its furniture to be mobile without compromising structural integrity.

"People change cities, they change countries," Kim notes. "So we design pieces that can be systematically dismantled, safely transported, and reassembled without losing their inherent strength."

Implications for Contemporary Design and Future Horizons

Marbledworks functions across three distinct pillars: proprietary collections, custom architectural commissions, and collaborative art projects. Each category highlights a facet of their material-first mindset.

The Collections: Hex, Jelly, and Triptychon

• The Hex Table System: Inspired by classical table typologies, this series pairs vibrant, industrially crafted, anodized aluminum profiles with heavy stone table tops. Notably, every component is mechanically fastened using screws rather than chemical glues, ensuring the pieces can be easily assembled, maintained, or repaired. The vibrant aluminum tones cleverly offset and balance the formidable weight of the stone.
• The Jelly Side Table: Demonstrating a softer, more sensuous side of stone, Jelly features flowing contours and rounded edges reminiscent of natural water erosion. "The form is drawn from nature—like a jellyfish floating," Kim says. "You can feel the micro-grooves and soft patterns under your fingertips. It’s an object explicitly meant to invite human touch." Each piece is strictly unique, dictated entirely by the natural veining of the parent block.
• The Triptychon Vases: Born out of resourcefulness, these sculptural vessels are crafted from irregular stone offcuts that were too small for larger furniture projects. "They are assembled like puzzles from fragments," Huber explains. "It’s not just about chasing sustainability on paper, but about actively rediscovering beauty in what is otherwise left behind."

Collaborative Horizons

The studio’s outward-looking ethos is further demonstrated through high-profile creative exchanges. During Berlin Art Week 2025, Marbledworks partnered with the acclaimed Berlin-based architecture and design practice Gonzalez Haase AAS. This collaboration successfully merged distinct architectural concepts with radical material experimentation. "They came to us with a very clear, uncompromising vision," Kim reflects, "and we translated it through stone and processing. That kind of dynamic cross-disciplinary exchange keeps our work vital and alive."

Summary of Future Implications

By anchoring their practice in a local economy of scale, Marbledworks challenges the throwaway culture of modern interior design. Their work asserts that true luxury is defined by longevity, ethical sourcing, and deep material intelligence. By aligning their manufacturing timeline with the geological timeline of stone itself—slow, deliberate, and enduring—Huber and Kim have established a blueprint for how contemporary design can honor the earth while speaking fluently to the modern interior landscape.