There is perhaps no espresso machine better suited to customization than the La Marzocco Linea. More or less a box, the Linea is an icon of simple elegance that many people see no reason to modify. (If you’ve ever seen one with chopped legs that seats it closer to the counter you can understand the appeal.) But that simplicity also makes it ideal for reimagining; it’s a blank canvas.
Which is what gives us the Topo Frame. Designed to fit a Linea Micra, the Top Frame brings movement and architecture to the home espresso machine, and it is truly lovely.
Appearing on I Can’t Afford This But Maybe She Can (top tier name for a website btw), a curated, design-forward online bazaar, the Topo Frame is the work of Dresden, Germany-based product designer Tina Bobbe. It is made of interlocking sheets of raw aluminum, “designed to wrap precisely around a La Marzocco Linea Micra,” the curved edges giving wave-like movement to the otherwise static shape. Per Bobbe, the Topo Frame is designed for usability and “to support every step of the espresso-making process.”
Bobbe is no stranger to coffee design. She has previously created a variety of pipe frames for Linea Minis and a stone pour-over dripper as well as coffee-based collaborations like coffee mugs with Dresden’s Yard Shed Office, a bike-mounted cup holder for Oatly, and some truly wild concept machines for La Marzocco.
But neither art nor espresso machines are cheap, and if you want a Topo Frame of you own, it’s going to run you a cool €1,900 ($2,163 USD), which is about half the cost of the Micra itself. They are made to order and require five to eight weeks lead time.
If I had espresso machine/art/espresso machine art money, you better believe I’d have a Micra with a Topo Frame. But I don’t, so I don’t. A boy can dream though, can’t he?
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
