DESKS

Desks

Desks define a personal work space, allowing you to create both a home work corner at home, also useful for working at home, and a personal work space in a more suitable work environment, be it in the office whether in a professional studio or more generally in a public or vulnerable environment. A desk, often similar to a table, is a piece of furniture that includes several functions and is intended primarily to support activities such as learning, writing, office work, and more and more often, with the advent of the computer age, computer work. Born in the distant Middle Ages, to support the activities of scribes - precious monks from Amalfi who wrote and copied texts by hand - the desk initially consisted of a horizontal writing plane supplemented by a rostrum, all supported by a vertical support and commonly used in the scriptorium, a special room of a sacred building position to catch as much light as possible when copying ancient codes. The desk has gradually evolved over the centuries, adding side drawers, which came with the flourishing and spreading of the arts and sciences science thanks to the Renaissance during which he wrote and held the whole writing world also causes the appearance of items such as desks and secretaries, relatives very much close to the desk. The evolution of the classic desk, however, was quite slow, at least until World War II, when with the increase in the number of jobs in offices, it spread a lot, evolving in accordance with new needs and defining itself in the present day. picture of a modern desk. Therefore, before it became a common and universal object of home furnishing, it was the subject of industrial design research on this input, becoming a true office table on which to write and work.

Desk: a personal study and study corner work, in the office or at home

A desk, therefore, starting from a simple table and its endless combination with drawers and shelves, certainly took shape from the activity performed there, including various models depending on the type of work and the amount available space, without any restrictions in terms of styles. The basic desk is therefore specific, becoming a combination of various modular elements that make it a highly customizable piece of furniture, and is completely in line with the calling of "personal" furniture, even when used in public or common areas, such as an office or coworking space, and where you can hang out for a few hours a day. Desks are therefore real workstations, with table tops and legs, as well as accessories such as drawers, shelves and integrated lighting, cable management and organization channels, for wireless charging tops for smartphones, as well as basic models, very close to simple tables, and therefore truly suitable for many home and public functions, for more feature-rich desk models, all in one facility, through all possible combinations of these types to define the real workspace: from modular desks, through various workstations to computers stationary and portable, with specific shelves for home, monitor and laptop, to combinations of tables, shelves and drawers that contribute to the creation of more complex desks, integrated with drawers and shelves, and sometimes even wheels, which in turn can be combined endlessly expandable systems, from single units to those with multiple workstations.

< h3> Lightness and versatility of desks with a modern design

Furniture accessories that fit into everyday life, modern desks are characterized by light aesthetics and are the subject of formal and material research that allows you to obtain models that fit any context, furnishing them . In this way, the desk not only becomes a functional and practical element, but also becomes a real design object, the hero of a space that should be contextualized according to the surrounding style of furnishings. The first parameter that needs to be assessed in order to understand which desk to choose is the model design. The most common are linear desks; in most cases, these are rectangular desks, but they can also be square, with a more or less large work surface, so they can be easily placed anywhere in the room, in the center or against a wall. Instead, corner desks use some of the corner space with the advantage of taking up less space. There are also bent desks that occupy the most important rooms, provided that they do not necessarily support equally curved walls, even in this case optimizing the dimensions. If you want to create a desk in a small corner, where there is practically no space, because in fact there are other functions, such as in the foot of the bed or under a bridge wardrobe, there are also desks on wheels, even swivel or can rotate on a mast, or always you can use as desk shelf or foldable shelves in zero space. If, on the other hand, you are looking for exceptional comfort, in addition to matching it with the right chair, you should opt for height-adjustable desks or electric desks. Finally, for 24/7 use, it is necessary to be able to place it near a window during the day and to choose the right desk lamp for use in the evening and at night, i.e. with artificial lighting. All this without forgetting the hardware you can equip with when using the desk, from parts that can be permanently integrated with the endless number of desk accessories on the market. Whether it is a single unit or a complex system, whether it is integrated desks or lightweight mobile desks on castors, whether it be for home or office, whether it is with drawers, shelves or simple desks with shelves, this furniture offers ample space area to work and at the same time present themselves as furnishings that can effectively contribute to the success of an interior design project. In addition to having adequate space and space available, the context in which the desk will be used is important. For example, in a home, a very different desk may be appropriate if it is designed as a desk for a bedroom or a study, both in terms of age and different uses, and also because the way in which, in each context, a desk can promote concentration is different. and productivity, while remaining a corner ready to relax and be more personalized than in the office, personal, but in a more shared space. And if your home desk in a dedicated space study allows you to have more freedom to keep everything visible, perhaps on the same shelf, going from work and study to leisure, and then easily filling with books, papers, various accessories as cups and food, in space shared with other functions, such as a bedroom or a living room at home, but even more in the open space of the office, the need for order and the need for privacy and protection (not only visual) makes it important, if not necessary, to have desks and desks to the cabinet had additional shelves, but above all they are desks with drawers, archives and modules with a lock, therefore taking care of the mechanism of opening their drawers, as intended. All this to be able to easily optimize the occupied spaces and to enable the inevitable and necessary cyclical order. The need for simplicity, versatility and temporary use may instead dictate the choice of hotel desks, while special ergonomics are required so that the tabletop can also be used as a desk for people with disabilities.

Desk materials and colors: from functional furniture for equipment items

Shape, accessories, context and location are just some of the variables in the desk selection field. Certainly, however, the material and color, as well as the style, allow you to finally combine it with this or that piece of furniture or create a new habitat on its basis. The infinite possibilities of modularity also allow for a wide range of proposals: from glass desks, transparent and capable of visually illuminating the space and easily distributing the light, without any obstacles, to wooden desks, opaque and seemingly more solid, combined into a whole. any case for the archetype of classic and traditional desk, even when it comes to desk design or modern style, for metal desks, with a strong steel or iron structure, often combined with lighter materials, especially for aluminum table tops or desks, or a light alloy, designed to It resists shape and shape gradually to meet different needs. Composite and plastic desks complete the picture by offering full and maximum versatility in forms that can be created, as well as maximum modularity and the ability to easily assemble / disassemble elements. And depending on the shapes and materials, the way of use, arrangement and cleaning of desks will also change.

Desks in modern design: styles and icons

As an object of such an ancient history, the desk continues to enjoy the inevitable changes in all styles from the past. And among the classic styles, almost exclusively in wood, by far the most common are those from lavish Baroque or Louis XV desks, or more linear Art Deco or Empire desks. In this connection, we cannot forget the famous Resolute desk that Queen Victoria donated in 1880 to the then President of the United States of America, Rutherford B. Hayes. Made from the wood of the British HMS Resolute search vessel, it was used by many presidents and in various parts of the White House, but Jackie, wife of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, first decided to move to Oval Studio in 1960. and not related to a specific historical epoch are rustic or country-style desks with the latest shabby chic trend, which, imitating the worn-out look of antique furniture, adds a touch of "patina of time" to even objects manufactured today. Ethnic-style desks evoke the equatorial climate typical of the southern hemisphere - African, South American or Asian - using natural and exotic materials that enrich the entire furnishings or just a few details or nooks and crannies of the house, and above all, many hotels and resorts. In turn, the minimalist and geometric Japanese-style desks make the tradition coexist with the essence of modern style. The essence theme, also explored in Scandinavian shelving systems and Scandinavian-style desks, being the result of Scandinavian research in the second half of the 20th century on minimalist furnishings and natural materials such as wood. The 20th century certainly saw the birth of the modern desk in its concept today when it comes to materials and shapes. So it is no coincidence that the design objects created then resist the passage of time and are re-produced and re-issued. An example is the Bauhaus style desks, such as the classic S 285 by Marcel Breuer, in all combinations, still produced by Thonet. Instead of Italian creativity and design in the mid-twentieth century, although inspired by the craftsmanship of the past centuries, the fruit is icons such as the Leonardo table designed by Achille Castiglioni for Zanotta, and the REALE 2320 table, reissued in 1990 by Zanotta for the design of Carlo Mollino, who in 1947 designed it for Reale Mutua assicurazioni offices in Turin. In fact, in the mid 1980s, Zanotta discovered the work of Carlo Mollino and began producing furniture designed by an eccentric Turin architect who, despite a contemporary international style, proposed a different poetics, preferring organic forms and the use of natural materials such as solid wood. And speaking of re-releases, one cannot but refer to all vintage desk designs, generally eager to revive a desk typical of the 50s, in which wood, metal tubes and the first plastic laminates materialized a completely new prototype compared to the past, with shapes that we still like in some respects. An evolution that soon, in the 1970s, reached basic and evergreen desks, such as the iconic QUADERNA 2830 designed by Superstudio, again for Zanotta. Finally, it is interesting how the idea of ​​a bed-desk, made by several Italian students traveling to England, a model of a desk on which you can comfortably put a mattress and spend the night in their room in the same space, found full creative expression in the famous ABITACOLO, a historical project by Bruno Munari, Compasso d'Oro from 1979 and inexhaustible modernity, produced by Rexite and made of a light and essential metal structure - a kind of scaffolding - two levels equipped with various accessories: inside the bed and around the desk, shelves and baskets for various items, used indifferently from the bed and outside, with endless solutions and compositions.