"Flatscreen" Coffee Table by Schimmel and Schweikle, Netherlands, 2019

The Flatscreen coffee table, created as part of Schimmel & Schweikle’s research project Flat Furniture, extends the same conceptual transformation applied to the iconic plastic monobloc garden chair. By flattening the side, front, and top views of this familiar object, Schimmel & Schweikle recompose its essence in two dimensions before reanimating it through printed digital renderings. The result is a sculptural table that exists between the tangible and the virtual, a surface that feels both physically grounded and screen-born. Functioning simultaneously as a practical furnishing and a design inquiry, the table provokes reflection on how digital imagery reshapes our understanding of space, objecthood, and the everyday.

Janne Schimmel (Netherlands) and Moreno Schweikle (Germany) began their collaboration as Schimmel & Schweikle while studying at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Their practice, rooted in digital culture and material exploration, interrogates the shifting threshold between virtual representation and physical matter. Through works spanning furniture, installations, and sculptural objects, they reveal how commonplace designs can become carriers of technological reflection—inviting new dialogues about form, function, and the evolving presence of design in contemporary life.