A Gold Winner of the German Design Award this year, the Plisago side tables by Studio Besau-Marguerre showcase an unusual choice of material coupled with an aesthetic that isn’t common to the material either. It’s a confusingly attractive combination that makes your eyes question what they’re seeing before your hands touch them to confirm your guess, while you, all along, admire its strange beauty. The Plisago side tables come made from porcelain, a material that’s completely alien to the domain of furniture. The table also comes with a design that gives it the appearance of fabric. Multiple seams and folds adorn the side of the table, with their own imperfections, generated by a special parametric software. Its tactile, textile appearance gives it the feeling of tightly stretched, lightweight fabric, until you rest your fingers against it, only to feel the cold touch of porcelain. It seems unbelievable at first, but the designers at Studio Besau-Marguerre did manage to cast a porcelain model as big as this, something that requires technique, know-how, and a great degree of confidence and risk. The fact that the designers succeeded in pulling this off is an award-winning feat in itself, while the tense-fabric-like unconventional form of the Plisago certainly merits its own awards too!

Designer: Studio Besau-Marguerre for Fürstenberg