Norwegian School of Art and Design (KHiB) graduate, Iselin Lindmark Dubland, has designed Birk, a coffee table with concealed storage for magazines, laptops and television remotes, and a removable tray perfect for TV dinners.
The four-legged table is made of birch wood with a one metre by 50 centimetre elongated circular top, containing a storage section accessible via a sliding tray that can be removed and used separately.
“I wanted to create a coffee table with storage space for all those objects that you often keep around the coffee table and sofa, that don’t really have homes,” says the designer. “It was about making something that I felt was missing for consumers with the same needs in that situation.”
The table’s form was informed by an insight uncovered in Iselin’s research phase, when she asked friends and family to send her photographs of their coffee tables in use. “It became clear that most of the items we keep on and around our coffee tables are slim,” she tells coadg. “Magazines, a laptop, notebooks, remotes, pencils, playing cards… that meant a storage space for these things wouldn’t need to be very deep.”
The designer lined the base of the seven-centimetre-deep storage space with 100{ff546b69e23b1524d799f96c6ba7a638e1f677053b0a2a1568b05315fd5f8fc7} wool by Kvadrat, which serves two purposes – it means precious electronic items don’t get scratched; it also deadens the sound of placing them into the space. “The wool creates a comfortable meeting between two hard materials,” says Iselin.
The green sliding lid is made of Valchromat to differentiate its function and add a pop of colour. “This part slides under the table top, creating a feeling that is quite nostalgic,” says the designer. “I thought about those old wooden Domino boxes with sliding lids – I wanted the mechanism to be quite low-tech in contrast to the high-tech world we live in now.”
Iselin constructed this prototype at the university workshop. “The table comprises four birch veneer half-circles,” she explains. “Two in each end of the table and one that completes the storage room, and one thin one that the green top rests on. The two half circles at each end are connected with four wooden pegs to the side parts, and then the top completes the construction. The green top has tracks under it, so it slides smoothly. The four legs are turned from solid birch, and glued and screwed to the table construction.”
Birk was launched at Greenhouse as part of the Stockholm Furniture Fair 09 – 13 February 2016.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- Look Like Love launches talent search for new designers
- Andrea Ponti launches side table inspired by Hong Kong street signs
- confessions of a design geek raises £1,750 in new charity partnership
- Max Lamb slices up 187-year-old tree to make 130 functional objects
