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TT_01
"A symbolic relationship between tight and elegant, solid and fragile"
Men and women, yin and yang, fries with mayonnaise (for the Belgians). Similarly, the feminine elegance who was in need for the masculine robustness of this table to come to life.
The tension in this table is created by a collaboration between different elements. The steel grid and the disks show the powerful character, where the slender legs and tension cables provide for a sensual touch.
Like the starting point of this design, the table works as an architectural object. The table could not only function as a figure, but could also serve on a larger scale as a covered square. A solution for an investigation how something rigid and solid can rely on something grassy and fragile, results in a perfectly balanced harmony.
TT_01 Prototype ‘2018’
”A symbiotic relationship between rigid and elegant, solid and fragile.”
The table’s tension arises from the interplay of different elements. The steel grid and disks highlight its powerful character, while the slender legs and tension cables add a sensual touch.
This was a study of how to make a table with the thinnest possible legs. The structural concept is based on how a cable bridge works, but inverted. A cable bridge needs big and strong columns - or legs - between which a thin slab hangs with tension cables to make the span. In the design of this table, however, the slab - or the thick crisscrossing steel grid - has to be strong enough to handle the pull of the tension cables.
Lowering the discs tightens the cables and by calculating their correct position the legs are able to be as thin as they are. With the discs in this position, the lower part of the legs can now handle the lateral and vertical loads, whereby the part above the discs is affected only by the vertical load. The lateral forces exerted on this part of the legs are passed through the cables to the strong steel grid carrying the glass
At the outset of this design, the table was conceived as an architectural project, since it can also serve on a larger scale as a covered square. This table, then, is the outcome of an investigation into how something rigid and solid can rely on something gentle and fragile, which results in a perfectly balanced harmony.
Heads up: in 2025, a full series will be launched based on this design.
Photo's by Merel Hart