Work - Projects - To + Fro Table
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- To + Fro Table
- Date: 2010-09-11
- Location: UK
- Type: Furniture
- Client: -
- Engineering: Buro Happold
Prototype Manufacture: Metropolitan Works
Development Support: UK Technology Strategy Board - Team: Alan Dempsey,Paul Loh,Michal Piasecki,
- Status: Complete
- Budget:
The to-and-fro table is designed to expand the range of communication between users through a sophisticated arrangement of material and structure. As verbal communication accounts for only a small part of how we interact, the to-and-fro table facilitates more open full body communication with certain individuals while remaining discreetly hidden to others.
Like the reciprocating back and forth of a good conversation, the table is made up of a field of delicate wooden fins that vary to-and-fro in relation to each other and interlock to form an intricate lattice that appears most transparent in the vicinity of the person sitting diagonally opposite the viewer and increasingly opaque elsewhere. While the variation of the transparency of the table leads to a more engaging interaction, it is also intended to produce a piece of furniture that actively contributes to the atmosphere of the space it is placed within by creating complex patterns of light and shadow.
The prototype of the table is designed from individual components that are precisely machined on computer controlled routers. The number of pieces and the intricacy of the joints require careful hand assembly by skilled craftsmen. The prototype is made from solid walnut with an iron free glass top, and will go into production in early 2011.RELATED LINKS: NEX at London Design Festival NEX at Frieze Art Fair