Design Challenge and Design Ideas

These tables were designed as part of a wider project and brief to redesign the beer garden for An Púcán and transform it into a gin & tonic garden. As part of this project, we established the theme of ‘All is not what it seems’. These tables appear to be gin & tonics suspended above a steel frame but are in fact cast in solid resin blocks.
When seated at these tables you can see directly into the tabletops which reveal a mixture of ice and garnishes such a lemon & lime and rose petals and berries.
Designing practical furniture that also tied into the the theme was a challenge we faced with this project. As the furniture was for commercial use it also had to be durable, easy to clean and safe and comfortable to use. Using robust materials such as resin and powder coated steel ensured longevity.

How the brief was fulfilled

The goal was to create tabletops which evoke ice-cold refreshment, encouraging the customer to buy a Gin & Tonic. The tabletops were designed to be a solid cast of resin and each unit contains over 550 individual acrylic ice cubes as well as realistic looking fruit. The tops are finished with dripped resin and a partially frosted effect to make them look like they’re always cold even on the hottest day. Thus the tables are a central element to the overall theme of the garden which is ‘All is not what it seems’.
To make these we built 5 moulds to cast the tabletops in. The resin was poured in stages over a 72-hour period and the suspended elements were added in stages to appear floating in the final block. Once set, these were removed from the casts and finished with hand tools by sanding, moulding and polishing. The underside of the blocks was left untouched leaving elements protruding (fruit and ice cubes) to create a tactile and discoverable feature. To create the drip effect a second, faster curing stage, of resin was dripped all over the tops and they were left to set.
In order to attach the tabletops to the frame the underside of each block had to be hand carved to fit the contours of the steel frame.