Interview about Focal Table, winner of the A' Furniture Design Award 2025
Focal is a dining table that balances refined aesthetics with structural innovation. Inspired by Baroque and Rococo architecture, it merges ornate detailing with modern minimalism. Its delicate yet durable stance is achieved through a concealed steel frame, while outward extending legs maximize seating space without compromising stability. Crafted from natural wood with precision cut surfaces and brass accents, Focal embodies timeless sophistication. Integrating structural support within its minimal form was a key design challenge, resolved through meticulous craftsmanship.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsMy visit to Paris in 2023 served as a catalyst for reinterpreting historical ornamentation through a contemporary lens. Walking through Versailles and the interiors of Haussmannian apartments, I was captivated by the rhythm of Baroque repetition and the sensuality of Rococo curves. These inspirations informed the sweeping lines and ornamental logic of the Focal Table’s leg structure. However, to maintain modern minimalism, I translated these elements into clean geometries and structural clarity. The result is a piece that honors the past not by imitation, but by abstracting its emotional richness into a minimal yet expressive form.
The cantilevered stance of the legs created significant structural challenges, particularly in managing load distribution and lateral torque. To counteract this, we developed a concealed steel framework embedded within the tabletop and extending into the upper leg sections. This frame acts like a skeleton, redistributing the forces and anchoring the entire structure. Each leg was carefully angled to achieve both aesthetic dynamism and ergonomic clearance for seating. The challenge was not just the strength, it was to make the table appear effortless and light, despite its underlying complexity.
Focal Table embodies the dialogue between human touch and machine precision. The brass accents are a nod to classical furniture detailing, offering warmth and material memory. Meanwhile, the surface planes and joints are defined with CNC-milled accuracy, ensuring tight tolerances and sharp clarity. This interplay was intentional. Where technology ensures consistency, craftsmanship brings character. We worked with artisans to hand-finish the brass and wood interfaces, softening their transition points and preserving a tactile presence that modern tools alone can’t replicate. The balance lies in respecting both methodologies equally.
Our main goal was to create a table that visually floats yet performs like a robust structural object. To do this, we integrated a laser-cut steel armature inside the tabletop that extends discreetly into the legs. This internal framework is completely hidden, allowing the wood elements to retain their visual lightness. Special joinery was developed to interface steel and wood without compromising surface integrity. The final result is strength without bulk, elegance supported by engineering.
We selected premium-grade, book-matched oak veneer for its depth, uniform grain, and tonal richness. Each sheet was hand-sorted and laid out in mirrored patterns across the table surface to create visual continuity. The panels were then press-laminated onto engineered wood cores for dimensional stability. After CNC trimming, the surfaces were hand-sanded and oiled in successive layers to enhance the grain and protect against wear. Achieving this refined look required both technical planning and sensitivity to the organic nature of wood, recognizing that even the smallest inconsistency could disrupt the harmony of the whole.
I’ve always been intrigued by how familiar objects can be reimagined through new proportions and gestures. With Focal, I wanted to challenge the static, heavy perception of dining tables by creating something sculptural yet usable. The legs, which radiate outward like architectural buttresses, redefine the visual hierarchy, placing emphasis on the periphery rather than the center. Yet despite the expressive form, every element was engineered for functionality: generous legroom, balanced weight distribution, and a spacious top. It’s a piece that pushes boundaries without forgetting its purpose.
The brass-capped legs serve as punctuation marks, deliberate interruptions in the flow of the structure. They were inspired by classical column bases and the ornamental logic of Rococo interiors, where transitions are always celebrated rather than hidden. From a narrative standpoint, they mark the transition between ground and form, adding a note of refinement where the table touches the floor. The warm metallic contrast also brings visual weight to the bottom of the piece, anchoring its otherwise elevated silhouette. It’s both a material and symbolic gesture.
Winning the Bronze A’ Design Award validated our approach to merging historical inspiration with forward-thinking construction. It encourages me to continue designing furniture that doesn’t merely occupy space, but also tells a story. Going forward, I’m more motivated to explore hybrid typologies: pieces that serve multiple emotional and physical functions. The award also reaffirms the value of slow design: carefully developed concepts that mature through research, iteration, and collaboration. It sets a high standard that I now hold myself to more consciously in future work.
Paris offered a living museum of contrast: heavy facades with delicate ornamentation, monumental forms with human-scale details. The curvature of wrought iron balconies, the rhythm of façade pilasters, and the theatrical composition of French salons… All of these subtly informed Focal’s language. I began sketching the leg structure after studying the scrollwork of a Rococo mirror in the Louvre. The challenge was distilling this ornamental energy into clean geometries. The influence of Paris was not in direct replication but in emotional translation, bringing classical poise into a new form.
Focal Table encapsulates the character of QZENS, a commitment to timeless artistry, cultural relevance and precise execution. From our beginnings in small-scale handcrafted projects to now producing award-winning and globally recognized pieces, Focal represents a new chapter. It reflects how we have grown not by abandoning our roots but by refining them through innovation. The piece is the result of deep collaboration between design, engineering and craftsmanship, values we have upheld since day one. It signals our confidence in shaping the future of luxury furniture where emotion, technology and history converge in objects of lasting beauty.
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