Dutch Design Week 2014: Dutch designer Roderick Vos has created a collection of tables and benches using structural supports with H-shaped profiles, more commonly found in architecture .
Designed by Roderick Vos for Dutch furniture brand Spoinq, items in the Blakeley collection are constructed from H-beams – also known as a Rolled Steel Joists (RSJs).
The steel beams are cut to length using computer numerically controlled (CNC) cutting technology and welded together into a choice of base configurations.
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Wooden slats are then glued together to form the tabletops, and joined to the bases with eight-millimetre bolts.
“It is a very low-tech table,” Vos told Dezeen. “I tried to make an elegant, refined-looking table, but at the same time focused on simple manufacturing processes.”
“The constructivist approach to product design has always appealed to me. I have always had a certain fascination for the H-beam. Of course it is mainly used in architecture, but one can use this steel beam very well for other purposes like the construction of a table base.”
The collection includes three bases, available in a wide range of colours, and 100-centimetre-wide tabletops in a choice of oak, ash or walnut and 200, 225 or 250 centimetre lengths.
“We focused on creating an alphabet of different table bases that we could mount the three existing tabletops onto,” said the designer. “The simplicity of the construction and the details has given these designs, unexpectedly, an almost Japanese touch.”
A range of similarly designed benches completes the range. “When the tables were realised, it was obvious that we had to include three benches in the same handwriting,” said Vos.
“I hope they will be loved by young and old – the simplification of a design gives the product a longer life span.”
Studio Roderick Vos launches the Blakeley collection at Eindhoven’s Dutch Design Week, which continues until 26 October.
