Where do you sit?

NAME architecture began Where do you sit? as a study into the future of social interaction in hospitality settings. The starting question was how design might counter the disconnection caused by screens and mobile devices, and strengthen real social connection between diners.

The response was a highly adaptable interiors concept built around a single continuous bespoke table. The table surface defined the space and shaped how it was used: a series of cut-outs formed by one ellipse created a range of distances between people sitting opposite one another, from intimate to private to the longer view of a social observer or the shared space of friends. Within a single 9 metre by 4 metre setting, the layout let each person tune their own degree of privacy, intimacy, proximity or inclusion within a group. Chairs, colours and table accessories quietly marked the individual nature of each interaction while reading as one harmonious design, and could be reconfigured for different spaces or events. The table lamps were designed in the French tradition of the surtout de table, an ornamental centrepiece that is both functional and decorative.

When Covid 19 changed the brief, NAME architecture revisited the proposal. Because the table was already designed around variable proximity, seats could simply be redistributed for social distancing, with couples and families forming clusters while keeping distance between groups. The distance first intended for social seclusion could now serve a sanitary purpose. Working with an ellipse made this straightforward, since its varying radii allowed facing distances to be adjusted to a new geometry.

Designed by NAME architecture (Nathalie Rozencwajg). Photography by Rob Jones.