atelier 010 critiques consumer culture with crumbling tables of sugar

dutch studio atelier 010 has conceived a nightmare restaurant where incredibly fragile tables made of sugar are both produced, destroyed and remade in a joint effort between the designers and visitors. a visual commentary on our society’s obsession with and over-reliance on sugar, stimulants and consumer culture, the project — aptly entitled ‘sugar rush’ — aims to evoke discussion and awareness around the relationship between consumers and producers. 

‘the table is designed to fail within the first minutes our hours of use’, explains atelier 010, who created the table in collaboration with the technical university of delft. ‘when somebody spills a drop of hot liquid on it, it simply melts. it melts a hole, or melts away the whole table’. as each crystalline table slowly crumbles away, they are swept together, crushed, and reformed into a new piece of furniture. production, use, resourcing and re-production are all done within one space.

the table melts when exposed to hot liquid

the beckettian scene is a response to the western world’s momentous production of waste, and our over dependence on the ‘sugar rush’ of consumer culture that has proven all too often to collapse under the smallest of pressures. ‘sugar rush is the first of a series of unsolicited projects that sprung from the nightmares and dreams of atelier 010. although the projects are very personal, the addressed themes are universal,’ continues the studio. 

the broken down tables are resourced to make new tables

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: peter corboy | designboom