New Bonaldo table “Gap” by Alain Gilles: It’s all about the gap. It is the gap in the legs of the table that gives them their structural strength. The two “blades” of metal that compose each leg of the table are spread apart in order to turn these slim non-structural flat metal parts into structural elements.
When seen from the front, the table almost looks like a paper mock-up where a table top would be resting on two thin split pieces of paper. But the table has multiple personalities. Hence when one looks at the table from different points of view, the legs gradually change personality and look either more closed or more open. Once again, a normally fairly static piece is turned into a piece with a tension, with a movement and a life of its own.
With an economy of material the table is turned into an intriguing element with multiple personalities. The idea was also to create a visual link between the table top and the legs in order to turn them into one strong graphic element that looks like it is resting almost on thin air…. at least from the front side. This link is created by matching the colors of the paint of the metal legs with the stained wooden colors of the wood. Because the wood is only stained and not painted the texture of the wood is still very present.
This table is very much about “simplexity”, simple yet complex. And as they say…. “mind the gap”.
