Trestles
Trestles form stable supports at either end of the table and are ideal for flexible, custom solutions. They can be combined with a variety of tabletops according to the user’s desires, providing the tabletop material can span the distance. If not, more trestles can always be added underneath to provide the necessary support. The available models range from sleek, minimal affairs to more robust, industrial designs and are equally suitable for home or office.
One such elegant design is without a doubt Daniel Lorch’s ‘Sinus Trestle’ for L&Z, a serpentine steel support available in a range of colours. Taking a more formally austere approach, Jörg Sturm and Susanne Wartzack join two pairs of slanted, solid-wood legs with a flat strip of stainless steel in their 1993 ’Taurus’ for Moormann. Bruno Rainaldi’s foldable ‘My Pony’ for Opinion Ciatti uses solid wood for two and chrome-plated metal for one of its legs. Kari Virtanen constructs his stark ‘PPJ A-Leg base’ for Nikari wholly out of natural birchwood, whereas Thorsten Franck uses brightly coloured, bent plywood to create his Kaether & Weise-manufactured ‘side_step’ support. ‘Koza’ and ‘Koza II’, designed and manufactured by Zieta, and ‘Affe Trestle’ and ‘Lackaffe Trestle’, designed by Thesenfitz & Wedekind for Atelier Haussmanni, explore a more industrial aesthetic.
All four designs are constructed out of steel and the last two trestles are also height adjustable. Also out of steel, but more sculptural and slender are Till Behrens’s ‘KSL 4.5 Arched table racks high’ and ‘KSL 4.5 Triangular Table racks high’, both suitable for round or square tabletops. Stephanie Jasny’s design for Hansen, ‘Mika’, combines four diagonal wooden supports per trestle, weaving them into an ingenious structural puzzle which brings a certain kind of warmth and informality to the originally utilitarian world of trestles.
