With his intriguing new Geo Table, designer Gonçalo Campos poses the question, “have you ever actually seen stone?” If your answer is along the lines of  “Of course, every day I see my finely polished granite countertops,” than the overarching point of the piece may be lost on you. As Campos says, “in this table the stone top is left unfinished underneath. This evokes the state in witch the stone is found naturally.”

The Geo Table is a Textural, Textile Acknowledgement of Man’s Dual Nature

The two faces—as it were—of Campos’ Geo are thus plainly manifest: the underside, rough and hardscrabble as a massif on the Matterhorn; and the top, the smooth and silky sheen we’ve come to expect from manufactured stone.

The Geo Table thus functions as a potent metaphor for humanity’s tendency to over-process, for the pervasive compulsion to take what is beautiful and unfettered and raw, and turn it into something more in keeping with the interior environments we’ve hewn out for ourselves.

Even so, the piece isn’t meant as some didactic statement of our alienation from nature. For Campos, the ability to manipulate and control nature is an achievement in and of itself, one worthy of a certain awe and respect, even if it sometimes seems an act of desecration: “Geo table pays reference to both aspects of human behaviour towards nature, keeping one surface flat and functional, while the other is left free and wild.”

For specifying information on the Geo Table contact Gonçalo Campos: mail@goncalocampos.com, 351 912 418 814.

About the Designer: Portuguese designer Gonçalo Campos turns that old saw about finding the sculpture within the block of marble upside down. Rather than chipping material away, he believes in working from the inside out: “a process that starts from within the object towards the outside… this results in recognizably “smart” objects, often with a certain humor, reflective of a relaxed way of thinking and curious attitude.” Campos’ product line-up includes bookshelves, chair, tables, and lamps.