Gold Furniture Design · 2020
Planck Coffee Table
- A' Design Award 2020 Gold Winner in Furniture Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: Dasein Products
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 60,557
- Verification code 871E3F44AE · Verify this award
About Planck Coffee Table
The table is made of different pieces of plywood that are glued together under pressure. The surfaces are sandpapered and threated with a matt and very strong varnish. There are 2 levels -since the inside of the table is hollow- which is very practical for placing magazines or plaids. Under the table there are build in bullet wheels. So the gap between floor and table is very small, but at the same time, it is easy to move. The way the plywood is used (vertical) makes it very strong.
Kristof De Bock's Planck Coffee Table emerges from a rich tradition of twentieth and twenty-first century furniture design that celebrates the expressive potential of laminated wood construction, positioning itself within lineages established by pioneering designers who recognized plywood's capacity for both structural efficiency and sculptural beauty. The work demonstrates remarkable technical achievement in its seamless integration of the curved interior void, where multiple thin layers of birch maintain their parallel rhythm while transitioning through a demanding radius, evidence of sophisticated understanding of wood's behavior under steam-bending or press-molding processes. The designer appears to engage thoughtfully with the phenomenology of negative space, allowing the carved-through aperture to function simultaneously as visual punctuation, practical accessibility for lifting, and philosophical meditation on presence and absence. The chromatic restraint, limiting the palette to natural wood tones, directs attention toward the interplay of texture, light, and form rather than applied decoration, suggesting an alignment with modernist principles of material truth while maintaining the warmth and tactile invitation often sacrificed by industrial minimalism. The end grain panels reveal themselves as moments of organic interruption within the geometric discipline, their swirling figures providing visual counterpoint to the strict horizontality of the lamination lines. Thematically, the Planck Coffee Table seems to explore tensions between the rational and the organic, between engineered precision and natural variation, between solid mass and liberated void. The title itself may invite contemplation of fundamental units and measurements, perhaps referencing the physicist whose work revealed nature's quantum discreteness, here translated into the discrete layers that accumulate into continuous form. How does this balance between systematic construction and flowing curve invite reflection on the relationship between human intention and natural material expression?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Dasein products was looking to come up with an unique coffee table. Different in form and materials. They choose plywood but used it in an unconventional way by bonding it together on the flat sides. This gave the possibility to make a robust and elegant looking object at the same time. Seen from the sides one sets eyes on a block of wood, seen from the fronts, one looks at an elegant, 2-level object. Due to the strength of the material, the thickness of the levels can be reduced to a thin line.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Width 75 cm x Depth 46 cm x Height 30 cm
- Tags
- Objectdesign, coffeetable, furniture, living room
- Production Technology
- The table is made of several pieces of polish pine plywood that are prepared with a CNC cutter. Once they are connected with glue and kept under high pressure for at least 12 hours, they require intense sandpapering and varnishing.
At the bottom, holes are drilled for the bullet wheels that need to be glued in. - Design Challenge
- The biggest challenge for this project was to come up with a unique concept that has an esthetic added value but is still functional. Dasein Products has chosen to make a rather small coffee table that is very easy movable. It can be used to store plaids, books, etc. so it looks neat at the sam time.
- Project Duration
- The basic idea came early summer of 2019. It took some time to get the details straight in the workshop in Ronse (Belgium) but in the beginning of September the coffee table was presented to the world.
- Operation Flow
- The table is fairly small and movable. The idea is to eliminate the big center piece table, but place (more than one) in the living room that can be moved to where it is needed.
- Research
- The object is designed with the golden ratio in mind. Seen both from top as from short sides, these proportions are respected for the wooden part.
The 2 horizontal layers where intended to be thin but strong. They are narrowed down to 17mm and still a full grown man can stand on the middle of the table.
A lot of time was spend on finding the bullet wheels. Metal wheels are strongest, but make a lot of noise on a stone floor. So the designer came up with small nylon wheels, but lots of them. In total 16 are placed under each table. - Inspiration
- Above all, furniture should be functional. The challenge was to create a coffee table that was different then others, esthetic and functional. With these goals in mind, the designer explored different materials.
- Image Credits
- Photograper Pieter Gregoire
Colors of Planck Coffee Table
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Design Interview about Planck Coffee Table
The starting point was to create an unique coffee table. Different in form and materials, yet functional.
The table had to be nice, but functional and easy to maintain as well.
I would really like to keep creating, so it would be ideal to find a business partner who takes care about production and marketing.
The design itself was just a matter of days. Once I had the idea, it went fast. But I spent a lot of time looking for the top finish and the ideal wheels.
I would like to design each important piece of furniture at least once. My first objects were lights, then I did this table, now I’m working on a chair and I hope to come up with a sofa in the near future.
I have to come back for a reply later. No decisions yet.
Well, I always wanted to create a coffee table. So when it is constantly in the back of your head, sooner or later all dots connect.
I guess that would be people that are interested in design and who appreciate the warmth of natural products.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I see a lot of new designs that look good but that are not functional. Like furniture has become art. This table is easy to maintain. It took quite some time to find the satin, protection I desired. The form and wheels make it functional; and it is unique in the way it is constructed. Plus we have implemented Da Vinci's golden ratio.
My son came up with the name. At Dasein Products all creations have a time related name. Planck is a German scientist who have his name to Planck-time; the smallest time unit mainly used in science. We figured that it is a good name for a small table made of planks.
The very sophisticated ballpoint.
The way it is constructed?
No, I worked alone.
The only technology used is during the production when all elements are cut by a CNC-cutter.
Not at all.
A table should be easy to clean with a wet towel. So finding the best top layer. And I wanted to keep the table low but movable. So finding the best wheels.
I hear from people around me that the table looks nice. But still, you want to hear comments from professionals.
I got surprised that plywood is so strong in the way it is used here.
I would like to inform that the inside of the table is used for the production of our lamp named ‘Monday’. The waste of material is very limited.