Over the centuries there have been many variations on the theme of a table with a removable tray as a top. This one began in about 1992, as a folding tripod base, with a tray held at three points. Something wasn’t quite right with it and after some months of doubt I suddenly realised it didn’t need anything more than a simple base with a smaller sub-table to act like a helipad, to justify the base when the tray was away. The first proposal was made for Kartell, and almost launched at the Milan fair in 1993, but they pulled it out at the last minute. It took me five years to find the right home for it. With the help of Fabio Moneta, who engineered it beautifully and Alberto Alessi’s enthusiasm for a product which seemed to connect the world of tableware with furniture and reinterpret an old function, it was delivered late but in good hands.
Extracted from Everything But the Walls by Jasper Morrison (Lars Müller Publishers, 2006).
Tables
