Mobili da Pranzo Tavolo
Mobili da Pranzo
Faculty Michael Kennedy
Studio 05 Propositions, Italian Furniture Design
Award Taubman College Student Showcase Honoree, 2020
Taubman College, University of Michigan
Winter 2019
Photography Freddy Foote
This furniture set was designed to celebrate breaking bread with friends and family - Mobili da Pranzo means “dining furniture” in Italian. Our studio traveled to Milan, Italy for Design Week, where we attended Salone di Mobile 2019 - the annual international furniture expo. I studied the the prolific career Italian architect and furniture designer, Gio Ponti (1891-1979), who embraced the Modern Movement and is considered to be the among the most influential furniture designers of the 20th century. What I admire about his work it’s balance of simplicity with sophistication, and elegance with casualness. Mobili da Pranzo attempts to emulate these qualities of Ponti’s work.
The table and stools have the same leg design, with different tops. The legs are tapered and angled in order to distribute weight efficiently. The connection pieces were cut using a water jet and were not welded; the design mimics the tapering of the legs. The tops of the stools were milled and painted black. The top of the table is an MDF board spraypainted gray. I then laid out a Ponti-inspired geometric pattern of triangles, formed into hexagons, which I cut from four different colors of construction paper and glued to the top. The table top was then coated in a high-gloss resin finish.
