Richter Table, Belgium

This desk was made as a birthday present in 1992 for the artist Gerhard Richter and was conceived with the idea of creating space in which for him to contemplate. Built out of cherry-wood with a linoleum desktop, the piece displays an elegant simplicity. Its trapezium, horizontal surface tilts slightly from the longer upper side towards the shorter front. Like old school desks the small table has storage under the horizontal surface, which introduces the idea of the “object of one’s own”.

The trapezium shape refers to two lines in a central perspective leading to one vanishing point, suggesting a focal spot in an imaginary landscape. The architects imagined the desk being installed in front of a window and the artist standing next to it, looking over his table outside. This imagination triggered the design of the simple desk for their friend, to give him a space of his own for moments of reflection.