Four side tables from four decades
Four decades - four side tables
Side tables might seem like subtle additions to a room, yet they have played a significant role in design history. This article highlights four iconic examples from across the 20th century. Each table reflects the spirit of its era, whether in the precise lines of Gerrit Rietveld’s 1920s Schröder table or the bold forms of Michele De Lucchi’s 1980s Kristall.
It is clear to me - the side tables deserve more of our attention. They stand firmly, ready to take care of the coffee cup, the wine glass, or the book. A type of furniture with precise functionality, often with a low-key approach, which makes them end up in the shadow of the armchair, the sofa, or the bed. But not always… Quite a few side tables have received their rightful place in design history, not necessarily for their exquisite function but for their innovative design and extraordinary expression. Below, I would like to highlight four of my favorite side tables from four decades of the 20th century, each reflecting the prevailing view of design or revolting against it.
1920s
The Schröder side table was designed in 1922 by the Dutch architect Gerrit Thomas Rietveld for the Schröder House in Utrecht. Rietveld (1888-1964) was a part of the De Stijl movement, which introduced the avant-garde neoplasticism style in art, fashion, and architecture. The Schröder House was designed entirely according to these principles and is today a museum, well worth a trip to Utrecht. The Schröder table has been manufactured by Italian Cassina as a part of their iMaestri Collection.
1930s
The Utö side table was designed by Swedish architect Axel-Einar Hjorth in 1932. Hjorth (1888-1959) contributed to Swedish furniture culture for several decades. As chief architect at Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) from 1927 to 1938, he designed furniture that are considered some of the most essential objects of Swedish Grace and the modernist style. Today, Hjorth is most recognized for his cabin-furniture series in solid pinewood designed for summerhouses in the Stockholm archipelago. These objects attract collectors and generate sky-high prices on the international auction market.
1950s
The Tulip side table was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1957. Saarinen (1910-1961) was born in Finland, but at the age of thirteen, he emigrated to America. He studied art and architecture and came to play an important part in making the USA a center of modern design after the Second World War. In 1946, Saarinen began working for the US furniture company Knoll Associates, for which he designed several well-known products, among them the Tulip Pedestal table series. It is said that Saarinen observed the ”ugly, confusing, unrestful world” underneath chairs and tables. A five-year design investigation led him to the revolutionary Pedestal Collection, including one of the most recognized tables of the modern era.
1980s
The Kristall side table is one of the cornerstones of the 1980s design paradigm shift, which introduced the postmodern movement. It was designed in 1981 by Italian architect Michele De Lucchi (b.1951) and launched at Memphis Milano’s debut exhibition the same year.
The Kristall table represents the protest against the pared-down style that prevailed at the time. The modernism's slogan "Less is More" was to be replaced by "Less is a bore", or “Too Much is not Enough", as one of the front figures of the postmodernism movement put it. As a rational Swede, I initially found Memphis Milano's overly aestheticizing approach a minor shock, not to mention the lack of functionality in their furniture. However, with the passage of time, the importance of Memphis Milano's redemptive creativity became crystal clear.
Article written by Lars Bülow
