Gioco by smarin — A Modular Furniture System for Creative Spaces of All Ages

Otávio Santiago
6 days ago
2 min read

From Forts to Furniture, Gioco modular furniture system

Anyone who has ever built a blanket fort knows the magic of creating a world from almost nothing — a place shaped by pure imagination. Gioco, designed by French studio smarin for Triennale Milano, captures that same feeling and elevates it into a fully modular system for all ages. Built from cork and spruce, the components can become a desk, a stage, a reading corner, or a playful landscape that constantly evolves. The system sits somewhere between furniture and architecture, acting as a building kit that grows and transforms with its users.

Gioco modular system with cork blocks, spruce furniture, pink stools, and natural light in a creative room.

At its core, Gioco embraces an open question: What can we create together? Instead of dictating forms, it invites collective authorship, echoing the spirit of the Triennale — a place grounded in experimentation, learning, and shared creativity. Every configuration becomes a collaborative gesture, shaped by whoever interacts with it.

Modular wooden and cork furniture by smarin, including tables, benches, stools, and stacked blocks.

Gioco’s pieces fit together without screws, nails, or tools. Cork blocks and spruce tabletops, chosen for their ecological resilience, allow users to build intuitively. Wooden dowels introduce new possibilities, such as transforming the components into a clothes rack or sculptural partition. Soft cushions add comfort and warmth, making the system adaptable to different ages, uses, and moods.

This reversible, multi-typology system can turn an empty room into a workshop, lounge, playroom, dance studio, movie corner, or small stage within minutes. When stacked vertically, the cork modules also act as natural sound and heat insulation, enabling Gioco to behave as a spatial tool as well as furniture.

Interlocking geometric cork blocks forming a sculptural partition with hexagonal cutouts.

By stacking, arranging, and re-arranging these pieces, visitors practice as much collaboration as they do creativity — transforming design into a living, shared experiment.

Written by Otávio Santiago, a designer crafting meaningful visual experiences through graphic, motion, and 3D design. Based between Berlin and Lisbon, he works across disciplines — from branding and print to digital and animation.