Leonardo Dining Table: An expression of intimacy in plastic
21st December 2007
Inanimate objects of intimacy number in the thousands, and we’re not talking just about sexually-oriented things here. There’s clothing, of course, perfume, bath products and more. More personally, there are love letters, and in this age of the Internet we also have text messages and email. Furniture can also be inspired by intimacy, as shown in the Leonardo Dining Table.
The designers of this table, Frenchmen Clerc Bertrand, Olivier Gregoire and Matthieu Plantrou, state that their creation is a simple yet visually pleasing object about intimacy, love, and desire. Unlike some other pieces of furniture, their table does not adhere to the “form follows function” philosophy. Instead, the Leonardo Dining Table’s form follows emotions. I am not sure what particular emotions they were feeling when they crafted this table and the chairs that go along with it. But I think the chairs’ legs look a bit flirty, the way human legs might look when they are playing footsies in secret underneath the table.
It probably isn’t very often that bar tables and restaurant tables are odes to love, like this one supposedly is. However, it’s true that many others are also expressions of a designer’s philosophy and ideas either through their design or the materials used. There are wood-carved tables, tables etched in laser, and like this one, those that are made of plastic. The Leonardo Dining Table was formed from Corian, a building material brand from DuPont, composed of acrylic polymer and alumina trihydrate. The designers entered it in designboom’s Skin of Corian design competition, where it was awarded an honorable mention.
Inspired by love, desire, and intimacy – it must have been a labor of love for the designers. And how gratifying it must have been for them to have their work recognized and acclaimed.
