Fällbord - Flexibility Through Design
Architect and furniture designer, Bruno Mathsson, is celebrated for his chairs and well insulated houses. His designs are extremely practical, versatile and beautiful. Mr. Mathsson's acclaimed home furnishing credits also include computer desks, daybeds and tables. An example embodying his fine taste for design is the Mathsson Fällbord table which incorporates and exemplifies beauty, elegance, versatility and practicality.
It was natural that a young Mathsson would grow up to work with wood primarily, because the Mathson family had done nothing else for five generations before him. As a little boy, his chores were in the family furniture and woodworking shop, and he had hands on experience with techniques, tools and woods all of his life.
Mathsson ordered books and consulted experts in order to acquire skills and knowledge, particularly in engineering and technical aspects, not available to him in the Varnamo area. As a result, he acquired the skill sets he needed at the same time that he made contacts that were valuable to him later in his career. The design awards he received for his furniture helped to finance his formal education.
All of Mathsson's different furniture styles were designed to provide the utmost in comfort and beauty. He also knew that people love furniture pieces that are flexible enough to be moved around and used in new and different ways. His modular furniture, which can be used in a variety of applications, proved to be very popular.
In Swedish, fällbord, as in the Mathsson Fällbord table, basically means a "folding table". The Mathsson Fällbord table was first produced in 1935. The table support was made of birch. Table tops have been fashioned using a variety of woods including birch, oak, beech, cherry, ash, and other fine woods as well as a white laminate surface.
The Mathsson table folds into a tiny 23 cm bundle when completely collapsed and expands into a table 280 cm long when fully extended. It can be arranged with a dropped leaf at one or both ends and could serve as a tiny writing table in a coffee nook or expand into a banquet table with nearly every size in between possible. For those not accustomed to metric measurements, that is a range of a bit over 9 inches to about 110 1/4 inches.
In Swedish country homes it was popular to use folding tables in crowded spaces to allow more flexibility. Bruno Mathsson very likely based his popular Fällbord table on these folding tables of his homeland. His designs, though, have a personality of their own with pure lines and construction. In the 1960s Mathsson began using more modern materials in his furniture designs, such as metal tubing and synthetics. Even so, the elegant Fällbord table and other wood designs continue to be held up as his finest work.
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Bruno Mathsson is most well-known for his chairs and his architectural designs, but he made other fine home furnishings (möbler) including computer desks, daybeds and tables. One of the most versatile is the mathsson fällbord table, a design that is elegant and beautiful, and also practical. Mathsson was indoctrinated into the family business virtually from the day he was born. Later, he sent away for books and consulted experts. All of Mathsson's different furniture styles were designed to provide comfort and beauty. You can use a Fällbord table in many different ways for versatility in interior design (inredning).
Published December 5th, 2007