Spotted on Instagram: a glow-up for yet another common everyday object: the plain and simple brick.

The inspiration comes from David Stark and fellow designer Jane Schulak, founder executive director of Culture Lab Detroit, who recently collaborated on a CLD benefit dinner at Woods Cathedral in Detroit. “Conceptually, I thought a lot about what Culture Lab Detroit does so beautifully, fostering connections and dialogue between ‘Detroiters and a global network of activists, thinkers, and makers,’ one brick at a time,” David writes. “The actual brick is an accessible material but a metaphor ripe with meaning in this instance.”

Stacked together and studded with candles, the humble brick becomes a sturdy, standout design idea worth borrowing for your next dinner party. Let’s take a closer look.

Photography by Ara Howrani, courtesy of David Stark Design and Culture Lab Detroit.

Culture Lab Detroit’s mission is “to aid Detroit in becoming a city that prioritizes the arts as a means for community investment, sustainable neighborhood development, and social change,” according to the site, through “creative partnerships, public projects, and annual Dialogues which incorporate exhibitions, design competitions, performances, and activations of unique spaces throughout the city.” After dinner, the organization hosted a panel discussion featuring “cross-disciplinary luminaries exploring art as a mechanism for cultural analysis and, in particular, its capacity to address reality and realism in our ‘post-truth’ world,” David says.