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Scott Laughton got the idea for his new Swell table from a classic sailboat.
By Paul Makovsky
October 2002
Ottawa-born Scott Laughton (b. 1962) graduated in 1986 with a degree
in industrial design from the Ontario College of Art, in Toronto, where
he now teaches part-time. He cofounded--and for five years helped run--Portico,
a design company that produced lighting, chairs, and tables. Laughton has
operated his own Toronto studio since 1992. He recently completed Keilhauer's
Laughton Series of lounge seating, which debuted at NeoCon earlier this
June. He is also working on benches and tables for Keilhauer.
Toronto-based designer Scott Laughton was able to combine his love of
design with his love of sailing when he became design director of Lolah,
a new firm based in Oakville, Ontario. The idea for the company came
out of a partnership between the designer and a luxury-yacht manufacturer
formed to apply some of the materials and techniques from nautical design
to making residential furniture. Lolah produces five of Laughton's
designs, including Situ, a fiberglass-and-polyurethane stool; Cache,
a veneer-laminated storage bench; Toc, a fiberglass-frame rocking chair,
and Jube Jube, a ceramic light fixture. Metropolis asked Laughton
to speak about his Swell table, the fifth piece in the Lolah collection,
which received an ICFF Editors Award at New York's 2002 International Contemporary
Furniture Fair earlier this year.
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I determined with an engineer the thinnest you can make the top. We figured
3 to 3 1Ž2 inches would be adequate to hold the legs. Right now the
table weighs about 60 pounds. My aim is to make it a 25-pound table. Being
frugal with the resin is the key, because that's what weighs so much. |
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For a long time I've wanted to make a table of carbon fiber with four
legs that could seat 50 people. That got me thinking about the materials
a boatbuilder has access to and knows how to use. It was obvious to me that
the table would be in fiberglass. From there it was a matter of exploring
structures that could be achieved with the material. |
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It's called the Swell. We wanted to evoke water and sailing. I think it
was the underbelly of the table--the way it was swollen--that was the final
inspiration. Originally it was named the Um table, just because nobody could
figure out a name for it. They were just going, "Um..." |
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The inspiration comes from the Laser, a Canadian boat designed by Ian Bruce
and Bruce Kirby in the late sixties. My table's joints are very similar
to the joint where the mast goes into the hull. |
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Available in silver, white, ivory, and pink. |
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Dimensions
Height: 29"
Width: 38"
Length: 72" or 89" |
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The legs are slightly tapered so you can pull them out easily. You push
them in from the underside. Because they are at four different angles, you
have to pull them out individually. |
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I wanted to use carbon-fiber tubing, but people would have just tended
to look at the carbon-fiber legs. They're pretty costly, too. In the
end we made the table with satin-finished steel legs, which are impervious
to denting. This way the table is dramatic but still has a traditional leg--an
element familiar to potential customers. |
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I knew I could form the structure from two planes at the top. When molding
the belly, you have four aluminum plugs that go through the holes in the
bottom of the mold, and you put fiberglass around the plugs. What the
plugs leave behind when you pull them out are the sockets that the legs
fit into. |
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The biggest challenge was figuring out where the two surfaces--the
top and the bottom--would join. I had some experience building canoes one
summer, which gave me an idea about how the material is used. There was
one master builder in the company who I was able to speak to, and we were
able to detail around it. The table achieves a real unity after the whole
thing is painted with a hard paint. |
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