Conference Table, Designed by Scott Simons; Artisan Doug Green
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| Designed by Scott Simons | Original Napkin Sketch |
Scott Simons, A.I.A.
Scott Simons Architects
Firm Profile
Scott Simons Architects was originally established in 1983 in New York City. Over the years the firm has evolved to its present form, a ten person multi-disciplinary firm providing architectural, landscape architectural, planning and interior design services for a broad range of clients in the United States.
Based in Portland, Maine, the firm is well known for innovative solutions to design challenges, large and small. Our guiding principle is to design spaces of exceptional beauty and substance. We love challenges and are known for our projects that combine site planning, master planning and combinations of new buildings with renovated and historic buildings. We have a strong ability to envision future facility and space needs and to create design solutions that add lasting value for owners and their communities.
Our office is organized as an open design studio. Members of the design team are involved at all stages of each project, from initial planning and conceptualization through completed construction and occupancy. We extend this working method to our interactions with our clients, encouraging them to share their ideas and suggestions at every opportunity. A team approach is created for thoughtful design, careful attention to the budget, quality construction, and an overall commitment to excellence.
We bring a unique design approach to all our projects. We balance listening and leading with depth of inquiry. Our goal is to stimulate imaginations and encourage rigorous investigation. We search for solutions that will support the goals and visions of our clients. We provide leadership, guidance, and technical expertise to insure that the final building product is true to our clients' intentions and supports their lifestyles, programs, and highest aspirations.
Bio-Composite Table
a collaboration between Scott Simons and Doug Green
I was my pleasure to work with master furniture maker Doug Green on this project. From the start we imagined a collaborative process. Rather than simply designing the table and having Doug build it, we met on several occasions to sketch and brainstorm ideas for the table. I had always been fascinated by the system Doug invented to assemble his furniture, using sliding dovetail joinery. My original goal was to try to design a piece of furniture that expressed the joinery more visibly. As I learned more about the strength of materials and the nature of sliding dovetails, my ideas evolved and the design of the table changed. We also decided mid-stream to change from using cherry to using bio-composite panels, a material that I had used in my architectural practice for wall panels and casework in educational buildings, but to our knowledge had never been used for a highly finished piece of furniture. I had always thought of bio-composites as “fill” materials. Doug’s idea was to see if they could be used in place of more precious materials like cherry. We learned early on that the bio-composites had limitations. They make beautiful surface materials but are weak in shear, making them unsuitable for the major structural components of the table, the stretchers and dovetail joinery. In the end we combined the beauty of the bio-composites with the strength of cherry and walnut to create this table.
The main idea for the table was to design a form that would have a sense of “movement”. I was looking for shapes that could slide and stretch, that would feel dynamic and different from the typical rectangular tables we are all accustomed to. After several iterations and extensive coaching from Doug, I arrived at this design, a 36” wide by 110” long table made of slices of bio-composite panel, with structural pieces of cherry and walnut. The top is made of six pieces cut from a 4’ x 8’ sheet of bio-composite. Walnut strips were added to mark the joints and accentuate the color and texture of the new material. The corners of the top are angled slightly to allow the person at one end of the table to see someone at the other end more easily. The edge is angled and rounded to express the slenderness of the top. The legs are staggered slightly from each other and separated by a thick piece of cherry that provides the dovetail structure connecting the base and the top. Walnut stretchers and supports are dovetailed into the cherry structure. Small walnut “pigs feet” prevent fraying of the bio-composite at the floor. As with all of Doug’s pieces, the table can be shipped in a flat box and assembled using no tools.
As we refine this design and learn more about the opportunities for the use of bio-composite materials, I would like to test the limitations of the materials more, to see how small the structural members could be made and still support the slenderness of the top. I would like to try inserting Kevlar or graphic strips between the sections of the table top to see if that would give them more flexural strength. I would like to see if we could simplify the dovetail connections and integrate the bio-composite materials with the natural woods more successfully. And I would like to push the limits of “movement” to see if the design could break free from it’s more static and traditional ancestors.
Douglas Green
Green Design Furniture Co.
Douglas Green grew up in Scarsdale, New York. He earned a BA at Bowdoin College and a master’s degree in Industrial Design at Pratt Institute. He began woodworking in 1978, eventually opening a small custom furniture making shop. In 1980, after a year cabinetmaking for Thos. Moser, Doug moved to New York City to pursue a career as an industrial designer.
In 1990, he was working as a freelance design consultant when he began working independently on a new method for manufacturing furniture that assembled without fasteners (for which he received a patent in 1995). Doug founded Green Design Furniture Co. in Portland, Maine in 1993 to design and manufacture furniture with his unique assembly system. In the years since, his talents have been applied not only to furniture design, but also to the challenge of creating a healthy company that can maintain its values and the quality of its work as it grows. Green Design Furniture manufactures a line of artisan-made solid cherry furniture that is sold directly to customers nationwide though catalog, online and a retail showroom in Maine.
267 Commercial St. Portland, Maine 04101 207-775-4234
Artisan Statement
Conference Table 108” L x 36” W x 30” H
Materials: Dakota Burl™ Bio-composite, Walnut, Cherry
Finish: Catalyzed Varnish
In the course of our early discussions about this collaborative project, Scott Simons and I agreed upon the parameters for the design process.
• The piece was going to be a conference table, Nine feet in length and Three feet in width.
• The design would utilize Green Design’s patented assembly system of interlocking sliding dovetail joinery to create the structure for the conference table.
I mentioned to Scott that I had become fascinated with the idea of creating the most environmentally ‘green’ piece furniture possible. Previously, in my researching this idea, I had come across a new recycled material called bio-composite that was initially being marketed for use in architectural applications. Made from agricultural fibers (sunflower hulls) Environ’s Dakota Burl was an intriguing material to find a furniture application for. We were eager to begin experimenting with this material and a pallet of 4’ x 8’ one inch thick sheets were ordered.
The bio-composite does not possess the tensile strength to make the table structure without the assistance of a secondary material. We chose solid cherry and walnut to create a kind of skeletal ‘spine’ onto which the composite is laminated. The walnut ‘toenails’ were attached to the bottom of the feet to prevent the composite from degrading.
Doug Green