Born as a heavier-weight alternative to the Hialina shelving system, that, screwed to a wall about which we had no information, offered no guarantee. Therefore, we set ourselves the challenge of creating a strong shelving system for heavy loads. The obvious solution was to rest it directly on the floor, hence the name: hipo, below; stylos, column; the room whose ceiling is supported by columns. The aluminium shelf rests on the vertical uprights, like on the deck of a bridge, with a section that decreases towards the sides, ending with a thickness of a couple of millimetres. If the shelf is full of books, it disappears. Some brackets on the wall prevent the shelf from tipping over, but the weight bears on the floor. The calculation of the resistance of the extruded aluminium profiles was carried out by the civil engineer Jesús Jiménez, a regular contributor to us on sensitive issues.

We thought of the promotional photo, with Clotet sitting on the top shelf, as a humorous guarantee of resistance despite its fragile appearance. It is one of the most refined pieces of our “neutral design” era, it is featured in the Vitra Museum and continues to be one of BD’s best-selling pieces after successive redesigns and accessories. The latest addition, also designed with Lluís in 2023, has been a minimal modification in the adjustment of the profiles that greatly facilitates assembly.

Delta de oro 1980