The Watson Table by Paul Loebach

Watson Table designed by paul loebach wich will be presented at Milan Design week 2011.

The Watson table is named after James Watson, the American scientist famous for discovering the helical structure of DNA. I felt like a scientist developing this table, working through numerous controlled material experiments to achieve the desired result. The closer I came to the solution, the simpler the experiments became, and the final result is a wood-composite structure laminated over a simple 6-part plywood mold.

The form is inspired by English furniture of the late 1600′s, with its distinctive open wood turnings, sometimes called ‘barley twists’. I was interested in translating these twisting shapes into bold structural elements, for the purpose of experimenting with new combinations of materials and construction processes.

To use materials as efficiently as possible I abandoned a machining-based approach in favor of an ‘additive’ lamination process. I began to experiment with composite materials to give structural support to this naturally ‘springy’ form; the result is a combination of wood and carbon fiber, with a painted wood top. This composite ‘sandwich’ utilizes the inherent rigidity of carbon as a structural core, creating a symbiotic composition providing a maximum of strength using a minimum of material.