convertible furniture: in response to Violaine's post

Hi Violaine, I looked at all of your sketches, and I am very excited about your ideas and your plans for your thesis project. I was very interested in a similar project to the one you are proposing a while back, and I spent a lot of time building furniture that was supposed to be convertible, similar to what you are thinking about. For example, I made a table which was used in the kitchen as a work counter, and then when you eat dinner, the counter folds open to create a dining room table. Here's a sketch:


The nice thing was that the height for a dining table is lower than for a kitchen counter (where you are usually standing up while cooking), so the geometry of this design worked well. I have seen some interesting tables that change in height from coffee table to dining table height.


Here is one that is not very nice, but it shows an intersting method of adjusting the height. there are mechanisms, like a hydraulic scissors lift, that will do this, too, but I think it is more elegant and satisfying to do this just using the geometry of the table, rather than incorporating complicated machinery that requires a power source.

I also had a look at the examples of furniture that you posted. I liked the table by Jean Michel Frank, who I never heard of until now. I did a quick check on him; did you know that he committed suicide in New York City?
steven