Stability with strings? The Suppenkaspar table December 2
Wobbly tables belong in my list of pet peeves. I just find it so annoying when I sit down at a coffee table and have my drink spill over the mug just because extra weight on the other side of the table or any slight movement makes it tremble as if there had been an earthquake. That’s why I was kind of leery when I came across the Suppenkaspar table, created by German designers Nina Farsen and Isabel Schöllhammer, over at Designspotter.com. (By the way, Designspotter features lots of interesting designs, quite a few of them weird and wacky – but wonderful, nevertheless).
Back to the Suppenkaspar table. At first glance it would appear that it stands only on two legs, and technically that would be right. Only two solid legs, located diagonally opposite each other, support the table: an ideal scenario for wobbliness. But that doesn’t happen because the missing legs are made up for by special weights attached to the table by thin, nearly invisible strings. And somehow the whole setup creates stability.
It certainly isn’t like any piece of bistro café furniture I’ve ever seen; it probably wasn’t designed for a commercial setting anyway. Though by all accounts it’s a stable table (hey, that rhymes!) Designspotter says there will always be an elastic effect and torsion, and recommends against sitting on the table’s edge. So maybe it wouldn’t be ideal for use in a restaurant or café or other hospitality industry settings where there’s a great risk of higher numbers of people brushing against it or bumping into it? That’s my impression anyway.
Still, there’s no disputing that it’s an unusual and attractive piece of work. The design world at least seems to think so, considering it was recognized with a 2007 Focus Award. It’s an achievement that rocked the Suppenkaspar table designers’ world, I’m sure!
