See more objects with the color darkgrey or see all the colors for this object.

Object Timeline

2010

  • Work on this object began.

2013

2015

2017

2024

  • You found it!

Drawing, Design for Leaf Table

This is a Drawing. It was designed by Joris Laarman Lab and the design director was Joris Laarman. It is dated 2010 and we acquired it in 2013. Its medium is graphite, brush and white gouache, pre-printed with digital code on white paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

This monumental and impressive piece can be admired not only for its meticulous engineering detail, but also as for its beauty, which recalls a transparent view of the human body.
This study for the Leaf Table, a presentation drawing by Dutch designer Joris Laarman, falls into the category of nature-based design (biotechnology), a popular area of exploration for 21st-century designers and computer engineers. Like Laarman’s celebrated Bone Chair (2007), the Leaf Table design is based on a computer algorithm that mimics the way bones grow in nature, adding or diminishing material depending on where strength is needed. The drawing was made for a 2010 exhibition at the Friedman Benda Gallery in New York City to explain in detail to the dealer, as well as to viewers, what the table would look like pre-construction, and what materials would be used in its final fabrication. (The fabricated object is in the collection of Atlanta’s High Museum of Art.)
Documentation of the 3-D prototyping process marks a relatively new area of collecting for the museum. This presentation drawing would be the second such design drawing to enter the museum’s collection, joining a drawing by Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec for the Vegetal Chair, which was produced by Vitra using prototyping equipment as part of the design process. This proposed gift explores a more complicated design fabricated by similar technology.

It is credited Gift of Marc Benda, courtesy of the artist.

  • Heatwave Radiator
  • molded polyconcrete (polyester concrete), aluminum.
  • Gift of Jaga, N.V..
  • 2008-13-1-a/c

Our curators have highlighted 4 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

Its dimensions are

100.4 x 70 cm (39 1/2 x 27 9/16 in.)

It is signed

Signed in graphite, lower right: Joris Laarman / 2010

It is inscribed

Inscriptions in graphite, right margin, arrow pointing to table top on plan: Polyurethane (slightly translucent) / RESIN AND / STAINLESS STEEL; below: Resin caRying [sic] / metal structure / AS VEINS OF A LEAF; six inscriptions surrounding plan of table: 60°; middle section of sheet, arrows pointing to detail of table top with text, above: FiNe structure / thin middle size / Rough structure / 5mm bottom / thin middle size / stainless layers / cast in clear UV / Resistant Resin; arrows pointing to various elements of elevation, lower section of sheet: PV resin table top / STAINLESS CONSTRUCTION / IN Between / stainless / construct. / R[...]ional / stress distributing; lower margin: LEAF TABLE [underlined] / Round table based / on leaf CONSTRUCTION / Base generated using / SOFT bill OPTIMIZATION

Cite this object as

Drawing, Design for Leaf Table; Designed by Joris Laarman Lab; Design Director: Joris Laarman (Dutch, b. 1979); Netherlands; graphite, brush and white gouache, pre-printed with digital code on white paper; 100.4 x 70 cm (39 1/2 x 27 9/16 in.); Gift of Marc Benda, courtesy of the artist; 2013-24-9

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Joris Laarman Lab: Design in the Digital Age.

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

For higher resolution or commercial use contact ArtResource.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/35520793/ |title=Drawing, Design for Leaf Table |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=16 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>