Uni Side Table by Xubai Li is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2026 Bronze A' Design Award in Furniture Design Competition Category.
BronzeFurniture· 2026
Uni Side Table
by Xubai Li
Client: Xubai Li
Bronze A' Design Award Winner in Furniture Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #182518The Design
About Uni Side Table
The Uni integrates inside and outside surfaces to create unconventional forms. Inspired by origami and negative space, Xubai Li designed it by forming a flat aluminum sheet into a three dimensional volume. Scaled from one sixteenth models to full size prototypes, it achieves stability through fold based geometry. Intended for urban environments, the Uni functions as both a table and a freestanding object, providing unobstructed negative space and mobility for modern studio living while maintaining an unobtrusive appearance.
The Recognition
About the Bronze A' Design Award
Uni Side Table is a Bronze A' Design Award winner, a highly prestigious recognition granted to outstanding designs distinguished by creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness. Bronze winners are amply skillful and strikingly creative artifacts that authenticate the vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness of their designers. Uni Side Table is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished object that is notably professional and innovative. This Bronze A' Design Award-winning design incorporates best practices in art, science, design, and technology, and is excellent for its attention to detail. Uni Side Table splendidly satisfies needs, touches desires, charms feelings, and appeals to curiosity.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
The main inspiration stems from the concept of origami and the pursuit of unified, looping shapes. Additionally, it was driven by a desire to explore the unification of interior spaces and exterior environments, blending the two through a cohesive form.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
My primary focus was to create a "formal being." I wanted to achieve a piece that serves seamlessly as a functional object while presenting itself entirely as a standalone sculpture.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
I am actively seeking licensing opportunities and exploring partnerships with collaborators who have specialized manufacturing capabilities. Because the design is highly adaptable, I plan to utilize adaptive coding to explore it in various shapes and scales.
Grand Interview
The Uni Side Table achieves something genuinely remarkable by distilling the philosophical depth of origami into a single, continuous aluminum form that functions simultaneously as a utilitarian surface and a freestanding sculpture, earning the Bronze A' Design Award in the A' Furniture Design Award category as recognition of its creative and technical merit on an international stage. Is there a particular quality of the Uni Side Table that you feel has not yet received the attention it deserves, and how do you hope that visibility from one of the world's most prestigious design competitions helps bring that quality to a wider audience?
The conversation around interdisciplinary creation hasn't been explored enough. Even though the design award shines a light on highly executed, professional pieces within the furniture discipline, the discussion could be expanded to include the dialogue between furniture in domestic spaces and public installations.
As more people move into compact urban studios and high-density condominiums, the question of how furniture can provide both function and a genuine sense of spatial relief has become increasingly urgent for city dwellers, and the Uni Side Table directly addresses this tension by treating negative space as a deliberate design element rather than an absence. How does the Uni Side Table reimagine the role of a side table within these constrained modern living environments, and which specific findings from your research into urban housing trends most shaped your decision to position negative space as a functional rather than merely decorative choice?
In highly compact spaces, people desire pieces that serve as both functional furniture and aesthetic enhancements to the overall interior staging. The Uni Side Table not only adds nuance to the interplay of positive and negative space, but it also adapts to an interior freely, working interchangeably as a side table, a coffee table, or a bedside table.
The decision to bypass standard industrial powder coating in favor of a hand-applied waxed finish on the Uni Side Table is a quietly radical move that speaks to a deep respect for the raw character of the aluminum material itself, preserving its industrial shimmer while reducing the number of finishing stages in production. How did this deliberate deviation from conventional metal furniture finishing shape the overall identity of the Uni Side Table, and what does that choice reveal about your broader philosophy regarding the relationship between material honesty and aesthetic refinement in industrial object making?
In the flux of fast furniture and highly advanced industrial processes, it is rare to find pieces made from raw materials, as they require a certain level of maintenance and possess very specific characteristics. Still, in a sea of color-coated aluminum, there is room for easily maintainable furniture—much like a hardwood cutting board that you can care for at home. Furthermore, the raw material speaks to the wabi-sabi aesthetic; it holds a quiet presence in a room full of other raw materials, perfectly aligning with Uni's intended structure as a seemingly circular, continuous being.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- Uni is a singular, continuous form that transmutes a flat aluminum sheet into a sophisticated, freestanding volume. By blurring the line between interior and exterior, the design achieves a structural duality where the tabletop and base exist as one uninterrupted gesture. Its innovation lies in this seamless geometry, offering a sculptural aesthetic that redefines traditional furniture assembly through minimalist rationale. This piece was designed by Xubai Li and manufactured by Bestcase in New York, United States, in a collaboration program, led by Rhode Island School of Design.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 533 mm × 508 mm × 457 mm
- Tags
- industrial decor, aluminum furniture, minimalist design, side table, sheet metal, sculptural furniture, origami
- Production Technology
- Uni is made with 5052 Aluminum sheet in .25-inch thickness. The process can be divided into three simple stages: 1. Roller Bending and Brake Press Bending 2. Edge Welding 3. Sand and Standard Waxed Finish to preserve the original aesthetic of the raw material.
- Design Challenge
- The main challenge was finding a form that elegantly embodies the essence of origami while adapting to harsh sheet metal processes. Every additional pressed piece introduced unwanted aesthetic noise. To solve this, we minimized assembly to a singular, continuous form. We also bypassed standard industry powder coating; instead, a simple waxed finish preserved the aluminum's subtle shine, reducing maintenance while celebrating the material's raw, industrial elegance.
- Research
- The research for Uni was a hybrid of theoretical exploration and material investigation. The primary objective was to subvert traditional expectations of furniture by blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior spaces. The study sought to translate the philosophical principles of origami—transforming a flat, meaningless plane into a meaningful 3D volume—into a functional furniture silhouette.
The methodology employed a "form-from-flatness" approach, utilizing comparative analysis of contemporary sheet metal furniture and traditional origami techniques. Data collection included a literature review of origami philosophy and an analysis of Asian aesthetic principles regarding "negative space" as a poetic element. Additionally, market data from furniture e-commerce platforms was analyzed to identify consumer trends in urban high-density housing.
Technical feasibility was established through consultations with manufacturing specialists to define production constraints. Physical experimentation involved a rigorous iterative prototyping process:
Initial Phase: One-sixteenth and one-quarter scale models were used to test folding geometry.
Testing Phase: Full-scale models were constructed from plastic and strength-enhanced corrugated boards (0.25-inch thickness) to simulate final material behavior.
Review Phase: Interviews with design professionals were conducted to evaluate the aesthetic impact and functional utility of the prototypes.
The research revealed a market gap for pieces that balance "visual openness" with sculptural presence. A key insight was that studio and condo dwellers increasingly prioritize furniture that provides "breathing room" through negative space without sacrificing artistic permanence. Uni impacts the design field by offering a dual-purpose solution: a minimalist utility surface and a monumental sculpture. By utilizing blank space as a functional element, the design addresses the need for openness in small architectural footprints. - Inspiration
- Inspired by origami, Uni explores the transformation of a two-dimensional aluminum plane into a self-supporting, multi-dimensional volume. The design utilizes fundamental roller bending techniques to transform a single sheet into a sophisticated, freestanding object. By eliminating traditional joinery in favor of a singular, continuous gesture, Uni achieves structural integrity.
- Project Duration
- The project started its design process in February 2024 in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, and finished its first edition for manufacturing in May 2025 in New York, United States, and was first exhibited in International Contemporary Furniture Fair 2025 in New York City, United States, and the Convention Center in the same month, in Rhode Island, United States.
- Operation Flow
- Uni isn't just a table; it's functional art. You interact with it by placing items on its surface or simply admiring it. As you walk around the room, its folded metal design visually transforms from a solid block into an airy, open sculpture. It performs better than standard furniture because it serves dual purposes: it provides a handy resting spot for everyday objects while elevating your space as a beautiful, free-floating centerpiece that doesn't need to be hidden away.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Jonah Takagi, Uni, 2025.
Image #2: Creator Xubai Li, Uni, 2025.
Image #3: Creator Xubai Li, Uni, 2025.
Image #4: Creator Xubai Li, Uni, 2025.
Image #5: Creator Xubai Li, Uni, 2025.
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