Wales & Wales is a UK-based design duo famous for their simple and classy furniture. The husband and wife team Rod and Alison Wales have been designing furniture for more than thirty years, creating pieces of timeless design, mostly in wood. They designed the Zen homestation for Stanley Wong (anothermountainman) and his wife to sit it and have tea ceremony; paint and practise Chinese calligraphy; and read.
Stanley Wong (anothermountainman), who set the brief, has long been interested in Zen Buddhism and its associated practices of mindfulness and meditation. Transferring these preferences into the realm of design, Wong imagined a piece of furniture that is pure and simple in its form. Functionally, it could be used for various activities including tea ceremony and calligraphy, but also for ‘just sitting’, a type of meditation. Wong imagined that he and his wife would engage in these activities together.
In response, Wales & Wales (also a husband and wife team) suggested a table with integrated seating. The bold formality of their design is emphasized by the use of oak – one of the strongest and most robust of woods – in its making. When not in use, the surface is ‘pure and empty’, as requested by Wong. The design also expresses with great clarity the element of traditional hand craft – another requirement specified in Wong’s brief.
The two low seats – facing each other – slide into the body of the table when not in use to form one integrated whole. There are hollow spaces on each end of the table to store trays, cups, brushes, etc – objects associated with tea ceremony and calligraphy.
The name – just sit / amm x ww – is a reference to the meditative practice, the initials of Wong’s alias – another mountain man – and Wales &d Wales.
Dimensions: 1800L x 700W x 400H mm
Material: Oak
Acknowledgement:
Design: anothermountainman X Wales & Wales
Production: Joined + Jointed