Wonhee Jeong Arndt and John Arndt, professors in the A&AA Product Design Program, are top winners in two prestigious international design competitions for a flat-pack desk system they developed as project team members in Studio Gorm.
The two received a silver IDEA (International Design Excellence Awards) award in the Home and Bath category from the Industrial Design Society of America, and the Professional Notable win in the Furniture and Lighting category in the Core77 design competition. The IDEA award was announced during the awards ceremony August 22 in Seattle, while the Core77 award was announced in June.
The winning design for both competitions is Shell Desk, which the Studio Gorm project overview states “elevates the home working experience to be an enjoyable ritual. [The desk is] designed to accommodate tech devices discretely while providing an elegant interior object that is an iconic sculptural showpiece at home that will outlive and accommodate rapidly changing technology.”
Above: Studio Gorm’s Shell Desk is designed to accommodate tech devices discretely while providing an elegant and efficient piece of furniture. Images courtesy Studio Gorm.
The design combines only two materials, wood and thermoformed plastic (Polystyrene). All components are designed to interlock “elegantly and securely.” The entire assembly is held together with six Allen screws and can be flat packed for shipping and easily disassembled for moving, so users can readily take the desk with them when they relocate.
“Why did we ever stop making flip-top desks?” the jury for the Core77 competition observed of Shell Desk, which hearkens back to grade school desks of the 1960s and earlier but with infinitely more grace and aesthetic appeal.
The “main problem” Studio Gorm wanted to solve with the project was how to design a small work desk for people who work at home, “accommodating their laptop and paper while also providing storage for notebooks, writing utensils, and other miscellaneous items inside” while simultaneously creating “an object that fits well in a home environment rather than an institutional office.”
Above: The design intelligently combines two materials—wood and thermoformed plastic. All the components are designed to interlock securely.
The Shell Desk also was designed to accommodate current and future digital tools. A small compartment in the back of the desk will fit a power strip, cable management, and plugs. A hole in the bottom allows the main power supply to be run through, and a discreet groove in the back of the panel provides a place for cables to be run up to the desktop. All this allows the desk “to accommodate for changes in technology, or the removal of technology without being married to it.”
The desk is also sustainable—the Polystyrene shell parts can be put into curbside recycling for disposal, while the wood could be repurposed in a variety of ways. However, the desk “is designed to be robust and last for several generations of use.”
Shell Desk measures 40 x 24 x 36 inches and weighs 36 pounds.
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Above: The entire assembly of Shell Desk is held together with only six Allen screws. The desk can be flat packed for shipping and is easily disassembled and reassembled for moving.
Above: Associate Professor John Arndt and Assistant Professor Wonhee Jeong Arndt.