AMO Has Made Your Grocery Shop Out of Marble
You can buy it, but you might not want to eat it.
Samir Bantal, Director of OMA’s research and design studio AMO, has built a supermarket full of produce out of stone.
Every shelf and every product in the “Il Sonno” market has been made from natural stone: marble, onyx, quartzite, granite, and travertine shaped into the forms of everyday grocery items, including Pringles tubes, sandwiches, and fruit – all of which are for sale.
The space was designed to read as a functioning supermarket: fluorescent strip lighting, background music over speakers, and standard aisle layout. Two mirrored walls reflect visitors as they moved through it. Bantal described the experience as shopping rendered inert: “Nobody thinks while shopping; it’s a reflex. At Il Sonno Supermarket, this reflex is frozen in stone. Commodities have been transformed into desirable objects, stripped of function. The experience of rushing through the supermarket is slowed down to wonder.”
Sophia Van Den Hoek / Studio Unfolded
While the pieces themselves have a cartoonish edge, SolidNature founder David Mahyari positions the work within a broader, more serious, argument about material value and longevity. “Natural stone introduces a different sense of value, rooted in sustainability, durability and authenticity,” he said.
“Unlike systems built on speed and disposability, it shifts consumption towards awareness, where everyday choices become part of a larger dream — shaping a more conscious and future-oriented world.”
The installation was commissioned by natural stone brand SolidNature and shown at Milan Design Week in April as part of Designboom’s Room for Dreams exhibition at the ME Milan Il Duca hotel. In total, it comprised 1,716 stone elements across 32 stone types, 24 product formats, and four finishes.
The Milan show has closed, but the stone objects are available to purchase through SolidNature.
