This article forms part of the Decorative and Applied Arts Encyclopedia, a master reference hub providing a structured overview of design history, materials, movements, and practitioners.

Modular Table by Claisse Architectures is a kit-based furniture system designed for quick assembly, flexible configuration, and adaptation to changing interior layouts. Conceived as a modular coffee table, it allows the user to assemble, reconfigure, and extend the object without glue, screws, or specialist tools.
The design uses a clear material vocabulary: tabletops and legs in walnut, solid oak, or birch plywood, paired with connectors in finishes such as white Carrara marble, grey marble, solid beech, and anodised aluminium. These contrasts give the table a refined visual character while preserving the practical logic of flat-pack and self-assembly furniture.
Its construction system is based on a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional double dovetail joint. Cut-outs in the tops and legs receive the connectors, allowing the components to lock together mechanically. This approach gives the table its structural integrity while keeping the assembly process direct and reversible.
Modular Furniture and Adaptable Living
Modular Table belongs to a broader design tradition that values flexibility, user participation, and efficient production. Rather than presenting furniture as a fixed object, it treats the table as an adaptable system. This makes it especially relevant to contemporary interiors, where domestic spaces often need to shift between work, leisure, storage, and social use.
The project also reflects a long-standing concern in furniture design: how to combine craft intelligence with industrial logic. The dovetail reference gives the object a connection to joinery and traditional woodworking, while the interchangeable components align it with modern modular design and kit furniture systems.
For readers interested in furniture systems, the design offers a useful example of how structure, material contrast, and user assembly can work together. Its success depends not only on appearance but also on the clarity of its parts, the precision of the joint, and the ease with which the table can be reconfigured.
Read more at Claisse Architectures
Source
Par JDD. (2018, August 10). Modular table, système de table basse modulaire à assembler par Claisse Architectures. Journal du Design. https://journal-du-design.fr/design/modular-table-systeme-de-table-basse-modulaire-a-assembler-par-claisse-architectures-108854/
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