The Domestic Totem That Connects Us - The Table by Hecker Guthrie

Rigg Design Prize Series

Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Winner of the Rigg Design Prize, Hecker Guthrie’s ‘The Table’ is founded in the untold story of an object that is engaged with so fluidly on a daily and lifelong basis, celebrating that connection as a beacon at the core of our domestic lives.

Inspired by the one modestly unassuming object in our domestic lives that has an invisible gravitational pull, a pull that binds its occupants in space, Hecker Guthrie’s ‘The Table’ is a celebration of the significance of the table as archetypal object. When deconstructed, the resulting fragments are elementary: a flat surface and one or more supporting structural components. Unintentionally, our domestic lives seem to almost orbit around this one singular object; it is the place we live (eat, drink, play, gather, converse, work, create). In all its forms, the table principally frames all our daily gestures.

Hecker Guthrie’s ‘The Table’ is founded in the untold story of a household object that is engaged with so fluidly on a daily and lifelong basis.

In a sea of terracotta, the table (in all its forms) becomes the hero. Beautifully crafted oak tables scatter the space, a reminder of its many functions. The controlled minimal palette of timber, render, paint and terracotta allows the many interpretations of the table form to be visible.

In all its forms, the table principally frames all our daily gestures. In many ways the table is the social fulcrum of the modern family dynamic.

The story of the table is one of the subtle Muse. Inspiring bustle, encouraging stillness and being a place of reflection and assembly, this domestic totem is a summoning of familiarity. The primary intent of recreating this in curated setting is to conjure an emotional, and somewhat nostalgic, response to space, and an individual connection.

The design ethos of instilling a sense of soul into a space, particularly through texture and movement of materiality, is well articulated.

Built within the required confined space, the vignettes created throughout, connecting the table structure and ceramic elements, remind us of our engagement with the table. Aligning with the many timeless projects from the Hecker Guthrie studio, the ethos of instilling a sense of soul into a space, particularly through texture and movement of materiality, is well articulated.

The Table by Hecker Guthrie is a place where materiality and an aesthetic become secondary.

Hecker Guthrie’s response is multi-layered, yet somehow the clarity in its execution is so clear, reinforcing the connection with the audience and our own notions of domesticity. Transcending the idea of the table as merely objectified furniture, the stripping back of the structure to its most basic and recognisable form, where materiality and an aesthetic become secondary, a domestic landscape constructed entirely out of the ‘table’ emerges. The table as surface, the table as support, the table as enclosure. The story of ‘The Table’ is a story of us.

The table as surface, the table as support, the table as enclosure. The story of ‘The Table’ is a story of us.