There is something a bit strange about Dekka: light and shadow, structure and void, come together in a rather unsettling manner. “Is it a table?” asked the woman of an agent at the Fredericia Furniture stand, where Dekka was formally introduced during IMM Cologne. Her face was puzzled and her tone was tentative as she stood looking down at the piece. No, no the agent rushed to explain, it’s a bench, a daybed. The woman’s face cleared, she sat down on the piece, then fully stretched out, a smile on her face. “It’s beautiful but so very comfortable,” she declared.

Dekka. Designed by Bo Strange, Morten Kjaer Stovegaard and Sara Vinther Martinsen of FurnID.

No description could please the designers of Dekka more. Originally created by the Danish furniture design studio FurnID, a partnership between Bo Strange, Morten Kjaer Stovegaard and Sara Vinther Martinsen, Dekka was developed for a competition sponsored by the Danish furniture industry. The assignment was to create a piece that conveyed the idea of integration and the designers choose to combine elements of Danish and Arabic culture, using an asymmetrical hexagon shape to form a contemporary lattice effect.

“Symmetry is considered divine in the Arabic culture; the more stringent the symmetry, the closer to God. But we made Dekka for people, and when it comes to people nothing is predictable or perfect: The asymmetry of Dekka’s pattern represents human nature?” explained Strange. “It’s also just a great shape that can be reworked indefinitely, it makes for a really dynamic pattern,” he added.

Finished production is a complicated project. The solid aluminum frame is milled on a five-axel CNC machine, a 40-hour process. Each of the hexagon angles is then finished by hand and the intricate cut-to-match cushion, available in leather or wool, takes nearly as long to complete. Complex yes, but “Beautiful and so very comfortable.”