When Simon van Esch (CEO of Dutch brand Functionals) visited us in our studio, he saw one of the table trestles we had designed for the Folkwang University of the Arts and immediately wanted the product to become a part of the Functionals collection. Although it looks easy, it took some effort to turn this presumably simple idea into a product.
Each trestle is made from a single Ø32mm steel tube that is CNC-bent. The ends are welded together to form a continuous loop. Finally the trestles are powder coated. The table tops are high quality multiplex boards covered with linoleum.
As this trestle allows for much more under-table space than a typical trestle, Philipp and I used to joke that it is “the trestle with the world’s most legroom”.
When you look at the table, at first glance you might wonder what there is to design about it, but the challenge was to actually consider every detail. For example, it was carefully considered to match the radius on the tabletop with the bending radius of the tube.
There are three standard sizes of 160cm, 200cm or 240cm length and a width of 80cm each. But apart from these sizes, Functionals offers customized table tops upon request.
The table trestle has been launched in black and cream white and the table tops come with linoleum in the colours 4147 Conifer, 4176 Mushroom and 4166 Charcoal.