NM25 by NM3: a bookshelf design that extends from the trolley matrix
The NM25 is not a bookshelf design that started as a bookshelf. It started as a trolley. Specifically, it developed from the NM24 product matrix through the alignment of multiple modules — the same box-section construction, the same 1.5 mm Mirror stainless steel, the same dry-assembled rigid prism logic, stretched from W 50 cm to W 180 cm across a single elongated architectural volume. That origin matters because it explains what the NM25 is and what it is not, and why it performs differently in a space from a bookshelf that was designed as a bookshelf from the outset.
At W 180 cm, D 35 cm, H 89 cm and 70 kg, the NM25 is a substantial object. On request, in Mirror stainless steel, with optional feet or wheels. This article is about the construction logic behind it, the range of uses it genuinely covers, and how it compares to the NM26, the other large storage and display system in the NM3 collection.
From trolley to console: how the NM24 matrix scales
The NM24 is a mobile trolley at W 50 cm, D 37 cm, H 85.5 cm — a compact architectural volume with open compartments, built for movement and adaptable use across domestic, studio, and professional environments. Its construction is a dry-assembled box-section shell: flat planes in 1.5 mm Mirror stainless steel assembled through precise mechanical joints into a rigid prism, fully demountable, available with wheels or adjustable feet.
The NM25 takes that same structural module and extends it laterally. Multiple NM24 units aligned produce the NM25's proportions: W 180 cm is approximately 3.5 NM24 widths, and the depth of 35 cm is close to the NM24's 37 cm. The height of 89 cm matches the NM24's 85.5 cm within the tolerance of the foot or wheel adjustment. The NM25 is not literally three NM24 trolleys placed side by side — it is a single consolidated structure designed on the same modular principle. But the formal and constructive continuity between the two objects is the point.
This kind of product matrix thinking — where a structural logic developed for one object is extended, scaled, or rotated to produce a different one — runs through the NM3 collection systematically. The NM05 miniature series derives from the NM01, NM03, and NM23. The NM21 and NM20 dining tables share the box-section system of the NM19 coffee table at a larger scale. The NM25 is the version of that logic applied horizontally to the NM24 trolley module.
Open compartments and variable use
The NM25's structure is described by NM3 as a rigid prism articulated through open compartments. Those compartments are not shelves in the conventional sense — they do not have fixed internal divisions or adjustable shelf pins. They are the spaces defined by the structural members of the box-section system: open volumes within the prism, proportioned by the geometry of the construction rather than by an added shelving system.
This is what allows the NM25 to operate as a vinyl console, a bookshelf, a storage unit, or a display system without modification. A vinyl console requires vertical compartments at roughly the depth and height of a record sleeve — the NM25's 35 cm depth and open vertical compartments accommodate that directly. A bookshelf requires horizontal surfaces at intervals sufficient to stand books upright — the open compartments handle that too. A display system requires surfaces and volumes at varying heights and depths where objects can be placed and seen — again, the structural geometry of the NM25 provides that.
What distinguishes this from a multi-function object that does several things badly is the rigour of the construction. The NM25 is not versatile because it was designed to please everyone. It is versatile because the structural logic of the box-section prism produces an object whose compartment dimensions and spatial relationships happen to be correct for several different storage and display uses. That is a formal result, not a feature list.
The NM25 as a contemporary bookshelf design
In the context of contemporary bookshelf design, the NM25 occupies a specific position that is easier to define by contrast than by category. Most metal bookshelves are either industrial — raw steel angle profiles, visible fasteners, adjustable shelves — or refined architectural pieces where the metal is a material choice applied to a conventional shelf logic. The NM25 is neither.
It is a structural volume first: a horizontal architectural element at a height that functions as a console, credenza, or sideboard while also providing the compartment geometry for storage and display. At H 89 cm and D 35 cm it sits against a wall at a height appropriate for active use — the top surface is at roughly hip height, the compartments are accessible from the front without bending, and the object creates a continuous horizontal line across 180 cm of wall that organises the visual field of the room at the level where most activity takes place.
The stainless steel bookshelf quality of the NM25 is inseparable from this spatial logic. Mirror stainless steel at 1.5 mm in a box-section prism of this size has visual weight without physical heaviness: the material reads as serious, industrial, durable, but the thin-gauge sheet construction means the object does not block light or visually compress the space behind and above it. The open compartments reinforce this — the NM25 is visually permeable at the front, which keeps the space behind it present rather than concealed.
The NM25 against the NM26
NM3 offers two large storage and display systems in stainless steel. The NM26 (W 170 cm, H 250 cm, D 35 cm, 90 kg) is a modern steel bookshelf in the vertical sense: a tall freestanding structure that reaches to ceiling height and organises books, objects, and display surfaces in a vertical column. The NM25 (W 180 cm, H 89 cm, D 35 cm, 70 kg) is the horizontal counterpart: lower, wider in relationship to its height, and formally a console or credenza as much as a shelf.
The choice between them is a spatial question. The NM26 is for rooms where vertical organisation is the priority — where the wall height is a resource to be used and the shelf is an architectural element that extends from floor level to near the ceiling. The NM25 is for rooms where the horizontal line at hip height is the organising element — where the wall above the shelf is left open, where the top surface is used as a continuous display or working surface, and where the depth and scale of the piece are calibrated to a sideboard or console rather than a library.
Both share the same construction system, the same material, and the same demountable logic. Both can be delivered flat and assembled on site without tools or specialist installation.
Where the NM25 has appeared
The console logic of the NM25 has appeared in several NM3 interior and installation contexts. At Reference Studios in Milan, long modular surfaces in stainless steel were used to define the operational zones of a creative studio and showroom. At Come for Breakfast in Milan, storage and display elements in steel were developed at scales that bridge furniture and architecture. In exhibition and installation contexts — Matter and Shape Paris, Alcova during Milan Design Week — NM3 has used horizontal stainless steel volumes at this scale as both display infrastructure and spatial organisers.
In each of these uses the NM25 logic — a long, low, open steel prism — serves as the horizontal datum of a space: the line from which everything else takes its height reference, the surface on which the most used objects sit, the element that gives the room its structural clarity without imposing a closed wall or a piece of furniture that reads as finished.
NM25 at a glance
Material: 1.5 mm Mirror stainless steel; powder-coated RAL available
Dimensions: W 180 cm, D 35 cm, H 89 cm
Weight: 70 kg
Construction: Dry-assembled, box-section components, no welding
Options: Feet or wheels
Function: Bookshelf, vinyl console, storage unit, display system
Use: Indoor and outdoor
Lead time: 4 to 6 weeks
Availability: On request
Shop the NM25 bookshelf design
The NM25 is available on request through the NM3 online store. For finish options, wheel or foot configuration, and lead time, contact NM3 directly through the website. The NM24 trolley, the structural module from which the NM25 derives, and the NM26 tall bookshelf are both available in the NM3 catalogue.