Yea or Nay: Are These “Space-Saving” Transforming Furniture Designs Valid, or Do They Miss the Point?

BY RAIN NOE From Core77

Here are two pieces of furniture that transform, and that don’t make any sense to me. First up the Twofold:

Okay, so it’s supposed to be a wall shelf that can turn into a desk. But as you can see, it’s not deep enough to hold a laptop unless you first remove the items that were calling the object home when it’s in shelf mode. So what are you supposed to do with those things, put them on the floor every time you want desk mode, then pick them up and put them back when you’re done? To me this succeeds as a desk or as a shelf, but not both.

Secondly is this dining table that turns into a bookcase:

Again, same problem: So when you want to eat dinner, you clear all the books off of the shelves and place them elsewhere, then slide this thing away from the wall? Then when you’re done, you clean the table, push it back up against the wall and re-load it? And actually, looking at the splay of the base, you can’t get this thing up against a wall. The footprint is significantly larger than the bookshelves themselves ought occupy. So to me this succeeds as a table (for two, anyway, the base makes legroom for more people awkward) but fails as a bookcase.

In my mind, transforming furniture makes sense when each of the two tasks the thing is meant to perform are temporary. As an example, a sofa that turns into a bed makes sense. You have a dedicated time for sleeping, during which time you don’t need a sofa, and a dedicated time for lounging on a sofa when you don’t need a bed. But books on a shelf are permanent in most people’s homes. If you’re going to eat or work, the need for the books to have someplace to sit doesn’t disappear.

What are your thoughts?

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