the offset dining table by philippe malouin comes with misaligned legs in solid oak

presented at this year’s london design festival, the offset table by philippe malouin is a solid oak, heavy duty piece whose legs attach to its top by way of an off-center threaded connector that ensures their unique, individual position. created for new-zealand design company resident, the bold dining table comes in bulky proportions, with a weight of 115 kg at 1600 x 800 mm, or 200 kg at 2800 x 1200 mm, and with no beam supports or metal inserts as the material is able to hold its own weight. 

all photos courtesy of resident

‘my usual approach to designing something is to think of a characteristic that will render the item different than the others,’ the canadian designer, who lives and works in london, tells resident. ‘but then it is about making sure that the product is as simple as possible (simple in production, assembly and aesthetics),’ he continues, ‘once you have the general shape and idea in place, you need to reduce as much possible to have “as little design as possible” (dieter rams)’. 

the dining table comes to join the coffee table and stool designed with the same principles by philippe malouin last year. ‘the offset products came as an accident while trying to align a base to a top that we had made in the studio: the alignment was never perfect, ‘ malouin notes, ‘so i decided to go with this idea of offsetting the alignment, and this is how the offset products were born.’