fabricating a practical exhibit of everyday objects
I was inspired by the elegant simplicity with which still life paintings portray everyday objects. While looking at the trash that had accumulated on my own coffee table, I wondered if I could make any objects beautiful just by organizing them in a certain way.
I wanted to create a table that encouraged users to naturally place objects in pleasant compositions. The table itself is meant to be simple and unornamented so as to enhance the objects’ beauty, but not distract from it.
designing a universal composition
All sorts of items end up on coffee tables. I did not design this table for any specific objects, but rather to be universally usable.
First, I modeled a variety of shapes and arranged them to have a balanced composition from multiple angles in 3D Studio Max. I then created an outline of where these objects ended up and sized the platforms according to this arrangement.
supporting a “floating” world of objects
I wanted to create a skeleton to support each platform and show the connections between them, which I explored with these balsa wood prototypes. The final design prominently boasts the mortise and tenon joints holding the platforms and base together.
model 1
model 2
fabrication
This piece is made of several CNC milled pieces cut from the same piece of maple wood. All of the joints were then hand cut, filed, and sanded to fit together.
gluing leg joints
attaching leg pieces to central structure
sanding finished joints
finishing with oil
final fabrication
