gustaf westman's stackable storage snaps together like giant glossy jigsaw pieces

"With Puzzle Shelf, Gustaf Westman continues expanding his soft-edged, hyper-saturated world, this time through a system that assembles like an exaggerated childhood toy. The stackable storage system is made up of glossy, bone-shaped blocks that lock into one another like a giant jigsaw, forming shelving, benches, tables, or sculptural stacks depending on how users configure them. The candy-pink, cherry-red, grass-green, icy-blue, and cream elements feel almost animated, compressing Westman's instantly recognizable visual language into a single, modular kit."

"In an Instagram reel created in collaboration with Apple, the designer traces the beginnings of the project to an everyday pastime. 'This is my latest object, Puzzle Shelf. Let me show you how I piece it together (...) I usually get inspired by the most random things. In this case, puzzles,' he explains. Before committing to full-scale production, the designer tests the form through 3D printed miniatures. The prototypes mirror the final product almost exactly, making clear that the entire system functions like a puzzle you can hold, stack, and live with."

"Each Puzzle Shelf unit features protruding forms that slot neatly into recessed voids, creating a friction-based structure without visible hardware. The system can be stacked vertically like a bookcase or arranged horizontally as seating. The glossy, seamless finishes exaggerate the volume, giving the pieces a buoyant, inflated presence, somewhere between cartoon prop and collectible design object."

Gustaf Westman's Puzzle Shelf is a modular storage system made of glossy, bone-shaped blocks that lock together like an oversized jigsaw. Units slot via protruding forms into recessed voids, creating a friction-based structure without visible hardware. The system can be configured vertically as shelving or horizontally as seating, and it also forms benches, tables, or sculptural stacks. Candy-pink, cherry-red, grass-green, icy-blue, and cream finishes give the pieces a buoyant, inflated presence that reads between cartoon prop and collectible design object. Prototypes were tested as 3D-printed miniatures that closely mirror the final product. The glossy, seamless surfaces and rounded silhouettes compress Westman's visual language into a single, versatile kit.

Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine