Philip Houska With the grand opening of the new Apple campus approaching, interesting information has come to light regarding the interior equipment, which must be as detailed and top-quality as the entire complex. Design server DesignMilk came up with an insight into the workshops where exclusive tables are made just for the refined style of this Californian company.
The table is such an ordinary thing that no special attention is paid to it. However, this does not apply to the executive director Tim Cook and his team, who want to fulfill their minimalist and detailed needs with this typical furniture. For the production of 500 tables, they hired the specialized Dutch company Arco, which has the task of assembling tables with a length of 5,4 meters and a width of 1,2 meters and a weight of almost 300 kilograms.
The journey from the tree to the finished product took 10 months. The individual tables will appear as if they were made from a single piece of wood, as Arco has devised a new technique where they cut very precise, thin slabs from Apple's chosen oaks and then layer them on top of each other so that they blend into a uniform, seamless surface .
Apple plans to place these "Island Pod" desks on every floor of the campus. The design of these products is primarily focused on enhancing certain casual conversations between employees and work bonding. Among other things, this concept comes from when Steve Jobs worked at Pixar.
In an interview for Design Milk Arco director Jorre Van Ast mentioned that the demands from Apple prompted them to think about their future in the production of these types of furniture. "During a meeting with Apple and Foster+Partners (the architects behind the new campus - ed.) about the first-ever prototype of such a table, we were asked a crucial question: 'What if you made it out of a single piece of wood?' Can you do it?'" Van Ast recalls.
"They challenged us to push the boundaries of our craft forward and not be limited by anything. It was this requirement that forced us to think about how to do it. It could change not only the future of our company, but also of our partners. Design, machines, logistics, the right choice of materials... These were the aspects that had to be re-evaluated."
Apple Campus 2 is expected to open in late 2016. By then, all 500 desks (including an additional 200 desks and 300 benches) must be imported and installed in the building.
You can have a great interview with the director of Arco read in English on Design Milk.
I don't want to spoil your fun, but if the photos show exactly the tables for Apple, they are definitely not made of one piece of wood. In itself, it would be extremely difficult to find 500 foshen of the required dimensions. Despite the fact that wood works and such tables would not stay flat for very long.. So it is not a sensation, solid wood sandwich boards are not unusual..
You're right, we worded it wrong. The point is that it will look like one piece, since no adjustments, seams, etc. will be visible.
Yes, wood works, but I don't think it's completely impossible. If e.g. oil instead of water were to get into the pores of the wood in some way (for example by steaming and subsequent drying), the "working of the wood" would be eliminated to a significant extent. In the same way that steamed wood can be bent, I assume that the technology to eliminate its twisting will not be such a utopia, rather, no one has thought about it from an economic point of view (as it would be expensive as hell). If we had the big oak sufficiently dry and uncracked, I think it could be done by pressing it in a hot oil bath.