Stone becomes structure rather than mass in Architectural Fragments, a series of Thassos marble pieces by Athens-based ARP – Architecture Research Practice that explores how far a solid material can be reduced while retaining its architectural presence.

Developed by ARP principal architect Argyro Pouliovali, the collection translates architectural thinking and construction logic into objects that sit between furniture and architecture. Each fragment is carved from a fixed thickness of solid Thassos marble, selected for its density and luminosity, and paired with precise stainless-steel supports.

Rather than treating the marble as a block to be shaped into a conventional object, ARP approaches it through subtraction. Material is selectively removed under constraint, with the amount taken away calibrated against what remains. The resulting pieces are defined by permeability, with the marble becoming a surface that extends into space rather than a solid mass occupying it.

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Light is an active part of this process. The relationship between the remaining stone, its surface and the space around it changes as light passes through and across the fragments, contributing to their perceived lightness. The density of the Thassos marble is therefore balanced against an architectural quality of openness. 

The approach reflects ARP’s wider practice, which works across residential, hospitality and cultural architecture while developing research through objects and installations. Based in Athens, the studio was founded by Pouliovali in 2014 and works across different scales, using material, structure, proportion and light as tools for developing architectural ideas

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Architectural Fragments extends that investigation into the relationship between making, use and experience. Although the pieces can function as furniture, they are not conceived simply as individual objects. Each is described as a fragment of a larger spatial system, allowing stone to be encountered in terms of structure and space as much as surface.

The fabrication by Delta Marbles S.A. is integral to that proposition. Working from a fixed marble thickness requires the removal of material to be carefully controlled, preserving the balance between structural integrity and the voids that give the pieces their character. The result is deliberately restrained, with stainless steel providing the necessary support while allowing the marble to remain visually dominant, its pale surface and luminosity brought into focus by the spaces carved from it.

Architectural Fragments continues ARP’s interest in material intelligence at object scale, using stone not simply for its inherent solidity but by testing what happens when that solidity is systematically reduced. The resulting pieces occupy an intermediate territory: part furniture, part architectural fragment, and part study of how stone, structure and light can define space.