Shift Tables by oato.

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Appreciation towards oato for providing the following description:

这个项目始于一个构想：为什么薄钢板不能如同纸张那样折叠？最终，创作出了这系列桌子“Shift”。采用最好的数控机对3毫米厚的钢板进行激光切割，然后将切好的钢板根据设计的角度进行几个简单步骤的折叠，仅需几分钟，桌子便成型。双三角形结构使得桌子极为坚固。钢板上稍有质感的白色涂层让桌子在光影下形体微妙而突出。

这个有趣的设计其钢板折弯处有着美妙的细节。一共两款，一张桌子，一张茶几。

For this project we started from an extreme question: Why isn’t it possible to hand fold a sheet of steel like a piece of paper? The results of this idealistic thought are the Shift tables.

The design uses the best of CNC machines and human hands. A laser-cutting machine cuts the sheet of 3mm metal in such a way that it becomes possible for a human to fold into shape in a few easy steps. An action impossible for standardized machines.

The result is a playful design with many different sides and subtle bending details.

Here is more information form the oato.

The Shift tables are laser-cut from a continuous rectangular sheet of 3mm steel. We strategically left small segments of a few millimeter connected so it becomes possible to fold the table into the desired shape merely by hand. The outcome is a playful setup, which was created by balancing the desired structural and visual effect.

We used CNC cutting to reach a level of precision that is impossible to do manually. The machine prepares the material in such a way that a human is able to fold it into shape in just a few minutes under specific angles, an action impossible for standard machines. To do so we used the assembly details and stops as guides so it hardly takes time to position the parts. Afterwards all the details are finished, or blend into the design so they’re merely visible.

The 3mm overlapping surfaces create a double triangle structure, making the table very stable and reducing the contact noise dramatically. The design is finished with a slightly textured mat white coating to give maximum expression to the shape with al the different angles and edges in various shades of white.

Shift is the result of a process trying to produce a product without large investments and quantities as a small studio. Even with very simple designs we were confronted with extra costs for setting up machines, we basically asked ourselves the questions: “Why can’t we just fold a 3mm sheet of metal like a piece of paper, so we don’t need machines to do it for us?” Actually working around using just machines gave us the opportunity to do something very simple for a human, but complex for a standard machine, letting us reduce the cost even in small series, but increasing aesthetic by details only provided by the before mentioned approach.

Stefan Tervoort, co-founder/designer:
“What is interesting to us is how this table is an hybrid between technology and human ability. It shows that technology isn’t always superior to human ability, and at the same time shows that it is. We like this balance in our designs, we think that some designers nowadays are a bit too occupied with certain techniques that they forget to actually use them, instead of just showing them. Technique could be so much interesting if the outcome isn’t dated to the moment the technique was new. We know this is not the first laser-cut table out there, but we think that this table’s aesthetic and details of the hand bending sets it aside from many other cold, straight folded sheet metal furniture. There is a certain softness/emotion in those corners, something unpredictable that brakes with the industrial nature of the design. We think we made a transition from displaying a technique into using a technique to come up with a fresh, playful, functional and efficient outcome.”

The tables are available in two sizes, a side table and a coffee table.

The development of Shift was made possible with the support of Dutch fund Materiaalfonds.

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