The coffee table is the gathering point of the living room which facilitates activities and conversation. Through Ripple's perplexing opening mechanism, I strived to spark an element of delight and wonder to this interaction. Acting as storage, the mechanism reveals a compartment to store board games or even coffee table books.
Roles: Furniture Design, Industrial Design, Rapid Prototyping, Woodworking
Materials: Ash, Walnut, Nylon, Grommets
Tools: Shaper Origin, Various Woodshop Tools
How it Works: pull one side and the other side opens as well
Inspiration
Throughout middle and high school I enjoyed making interactive cards for friends and family, and this double slider card easily became a crowd favorite due to its element of surprise. I decided to take this delight a step further and adapt this mechanism into a coffee table – the center of the living room and something that can become a conversation piece
Sketches
Image Board: clean, tactile, flowy
Ideation
Foamcore Sketch Model
Using foamcore and ribbon I made a sketch model to confirm my design
1:1 Mechanism Model
Using scrap wood I made a life-size model of half of the table to make sure my mechanism would actually work when up to scale
Fabrication
The Close
