I just stumbled across—and am totally in love with— the construction of this simple bookcase. Called the Stoa Kitap 03, it's the work of Istanbul-based designer Tardu Kuman, and as you can see it's made with one of the oldest joints known to man: The mortise and tenon. If you think about it, you'll see Kuman doesn't even need to glue the joints (though I can't tell if he did or not), because once you slot the pieces into place, gravity will do all of the work. And this brilliant design would make flatpacking it a snap, while also enabling instruction-free, idiot-proof assembly.

On his website Kuman's got a variety of furniture constructed with the mortise and tenon...

...along with this beautifully simple low rolling stool done up with a standard cross-lap joint.

Kuman's a pretty under-the-radar guy; there's virtually no press on him, at least in English, save for two paragraphs in Dwell; it seems they discovered him first. We did find a never-finished personal website of his that appears to be from the early days of the Internet, and it indicates that he studied philosophy in Istanbul, did jewelry design in Paris, started making furniture in Athens, and returned to Istanbul to set up his own workshop and showroom called Stoa Design.

Kuman's background in philosophy is telling of his design approach: "In philosophy, the same concepts have been reinterpreted since ancient times," he told Dwell. "Wood and metal have been in our lives since then; they are the same materials, but you can always express something new."