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Speculative design proposal for an adaptable kitchen table

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Through researching the everyday experience of home and domestic space, it was evident that the kitchen table is not merely a place for eating, but a hive of activity and interaction. Amid all the home-related activities - eating, baking, socialising and relaxing – it also often becomes a desk for those who work from home.  With the blurring of boundaries between home life and work in mind, the above images document a speculative table design that allows people to create and reconfigure different areas within the same surface and space to re-establish both physical and temporal boundaries between activities.

Helen Darnell

Helen Darnell is an Interior Designer, Researcher and Educator. In her commercial career, predominantly in workplace design, she has seen, and been involved in, a huge shift in the design of office interiors to accommodate more flexible ways of working. The focus of her MA research into 21st Century domestic space was fueled by her frustration at the lack of such a user-defined design philosophy in the design of housing in the UK. Her speculative design proposal for an adaptable kitchen table was exhibited as part of the 2015 Manchester School of Art MA Show. Helen currently teaches on the BA Interior Design programme at University of Huddersfield where she continues her research into user-centric design.