Tension Shelf is a minimalist shelf created by Netherlands-based designer Paul Coenen. This piece is assembled from four stainless steel parts. The three shelves pierce the curved sheet. The tension in the curved sheet is locked by the shelves, which makes up a solid connection between the different parts. Due to its shape, it is functional from all four sides. The Tension shelf is a continuation on the Borders of Assembly collection. The manufacturing industry is using standard sized material, and every machine used works according to these sizes. Instead of seeing this as a limitation, it became an investigation for new possibilities. Sheet metal is often folded to rule out its flexible properties and to create stiffness in the material. This flexibility can also be used in our advantage. By combining this feature together with high precision manufacturing, a form language evolved: the flexibility of metal is used to lock pieces together due to the sheet’s force of bending back to its original shape.