Melbourne, Australia
“During the design process for this piece I was confined within my home, hence the name Containa,” explains Dean Norton of Dean Norton Studio.
“It’s reflective of the current time and my response to how I was feeling during the development of the concept.”
Dean Norton presents a collection of encased tables inspired by the feeling of being confined during the COVID-19 lockdown, comprising frosted glass components that enclose an organic, wood-turned form of a table.
The Containa Table Series recently won the “Best Table of the Year” at the 2022 Prize Designs for Modern Furniture and Lighting from Global Design News and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
Named Containa, this table collection is a furniture series with a degree of enigma and mystery, exploring the narrative of the vessel and its contents.
The brief was to explore the possibility of functional design to inspire delight, provoke conversation and embody the story, bringing craft together with a conceptual expression of ideas.
Created during the lockdown months in Melbourne 2021, this series of work is an exploration of the collective experience during this time. Symbolic of both confinement, solitude, protection, and the unknown.
Containa consists of four editions combining clear and black frosted glass with an internal sculptural form finished in a variety of lacquered colors.
All editions focus on an organic, sculptural, wood-turned form, housed within shards of frosted glass, protected, still, and delicately floating in what appears to be a blanket of fog.
The glass shards are miter bonded with clear resin and the timber sculpture is hand turned by a local woodturning manufacturer.
The exterior part is made of 9 pieces of mitered cut panes of 10mm frosted toughened glass.
Each piece is cut using CNC water polishing machinery before being bonded by hand using crystal clear resin.
Each table shares the same design principles and proportions combined to achieve a seamless exploration of shape, scale, and narrative.
Obtained through a combination of natural materials and a combination of modern manufacturing techniques, this is a functional crafted piece perceptible in both design precision and organic composition.
Resulting in a series that is a symbolic exploration of confinement and protection.
The collection was created initially for the “Narrative Goods” exhibition presented by Modern Times Gallery in Melbourne and part of Craft Contemporary Festival.
Project: Containa Table Series
Designers: Dean Norton Studio
Manufacturer: Dean Norton Studio
