Table Mannerisms

Essay, expanding design practices, No Density, Penelope Dean, Technology and fabrication

Aesthetics, Alternative Domesticity, Architectural objects, Architecture&design, Circulation, Cultural agitator, Essay, Functional unit, Functionality, Furniture wood, Housing, Japan, Plywood, Singular Housing, Space-body relationship, Surface, Texture

Excerpt from "NESS. On Architecture, Life and Urban Culture 3" edited by Florencia Rodríguez and Pablo Gerson -- https://lccn.loc.gov/2017203107

There is no more ubiquitous piece of furniture in architectural culture than the table. Practically, tables perform as objects of convenience. Conventionally, they serve to establish scale for the plan and represent the function of the space: coffee table, dining table, drafting table, occasional table, offering table, operating table, side table, work table. Historically, they have inspired integrated-tables (floors and walls that absorb tables), macro-tables (buildings that look like tables), and micro-architectures (tables that look like buildings). Occasionally, they disappear as one thing, and reappear as something else.