Future Classic Concorde Table

22 November 2021

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Was the British-French airliner Concorde going through Emmanuel Gallina’s mind when he came up with the idea for the Concorde dining table, produced for Poliform in 2012. It certainly doesn’t leave terra firma like the finely sculptured aeroplane, but this dining table has a similar lightness and erudite feel.

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Emmanuel Gallina, the award-winning designer who shares his time between Milan and Bordeaux, refers to the words of eminent sculptor Constantin Brancusi (whose work is given over to an entire museum adjacent to the Pompidou Museum in Paris) as being a source of inspiration for his approach to design: ‘Simplicity is complexity resolved’.

Those familiar with Constantin Brancusi’s work will appreciate the finesse and purity of each line. Likewise, Emmanuel’s Concorde dining table is masterfully handled with a branch-like timber base that supports either a chamfered-edged marble top or one in timber. Timeless, elegant and avoiding faddish design for the moment, the Concorde design, also released as a desk, addresses Emmanuel’s avoidance of simply ‘style’.

“I avoid all styles and trends to concentrate on harmony and making comfortable spaces,” Emmanuel says, as quoted in Prestige magazine. (Liviani Putri, 20 April 2020). He further elaborates by saying that “People nowadays need things that make sense, that gives them warmness and wellbeing”.

Many contemporary designers refer to the work of the great modernist Le Corbusier, whose architecture is often referred to as a ‘machine for living’ for their inspiration. However, Emmanuel calls on less prominent designers such as interior architect and furniture designer Pierre Chareau, responsible for Maison de Verre (House of Glass) in Paris, which was completed in 1932. Another interior designer Jean Michel Frank, who moved from Paris to New York in the early 1940s, has also made an indelible mark on Emmanuel. “These designers created modern spaces using rich and textured materials,” he says.

The Concorde dining table celebrates the richness found in marble, offering this table in a matt or glossy gold Calcutta, Carrara or Emperador (seven choices of marble are available) as well as walnut or oak. Recipient of a wallpaper* design award in 2011, this table has become a favourite with architects and interior designers looking for the finest in contemporary furniture, but also a timeless design. The Future Classic story was first published on Est Living, by Stephen Crafti.