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The Missing Dining Table:
A Glimpse into Future Product Design Trends

Minimalist studio scene with rose-gold wire dining furniture scattered around a white pedestal and a small black rabbit nearby.

{ Project Overview }

Reimagining the future of dining through evolving lifestyles, changing spaces, and new social habits.

Were you enjoying a sandwich at a park bench, having a quick bite at your desk, or sharing a meal with friends? How will we dine in the future? With technology and a faster pace of life come an increasingly autonomous and solitary lifestyle. Our evolving lifestyle is changing our habits and we find ourselves standing at the intersection of the way of life, social norms and personal eating habits.

We are all familiar with the dining table in our homes. It has served as a generous stage where people can eat together and have a conversation over a meal. At the same time, we struggle to find the dining table a place in the rapidly changing reality of shrinking living spaces and vastly diverse work schedules and social activities. What if, in place of the dining table we are so familiar with, there are other objects that we will associate with dining?

Outdoors, a couple sits on the grass with a small white table holding a glass of wine, a red apple, and a wooden board of bite-size appetizers.

{ Creative Challenge }

Traditional dining formats failing to suit evolving lifestyles of solitary and mobile living
  1. 01

    Eating habits were shifting, with more people dining alone or on the go, but furniture and dining ware remained designed for group dining

  2. 02

    There was limited exploration of how form and function could adapt to solo dining without losing aesthetic value

  3. 03

    Without experimental design, everyday dining objects risked feeling outdated or irrelevant for people’s changing needs

  4. 04

    There was no strong visual narrative that provoked thought about alternative dining experiences and how design could respond to that

{ The Solution }

Created an inventive collection of alternative dining objects that provoke, delight and adapt

  1. Developed The Missing Dining Table collection in collaboration with designer Andrew Loh, featuring objects conceived for solo dining, mobility, and evolving daily rituals

  2. Designed pieces such as “Singular” for eating on one’s own, “Reflection” to include pets as dining companions, and other modular, playful forms that challenge the dining table norm

  3. Explored a variety of materials and techniques to produce objects that feel functional yet poetic, enabling users to adapt to different dining contexts

  4. Presented the collection at SaloneSatellite 2016, sparking international dialogue about the future of dining and how design can reimagine daily life

Rose-gold metal rolling cart with vertical bars and a white panel, standing against a pale background.

{ DESIGN, TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS }

The Missing Dining Table Collection explores how dining habits are evolving and imagines alternative dining experiences for the future. Through experimental design, materials, and techniques, the collection challenges conventional dining norms, provoking conversation and encouraging new ways of thinking about how we gather, eat, and interact.

Visitors in a minimalist showroom browse displays beneath a sign reading 'The Missing Dining Table'.

{ Design Thinking }

Using Design Thinking to transform audience insights into purposeful and user-centred design solutions.

A Design Thinking approach guided the development of the collection, ensuring audience needs remained at the core of the creative process. Through research, observation, and user empathy, key insights were uncovered to define challenges and identify opportunities for innovation.

These findings informed concept generation and rapid prototyping, enabling ideas to be tested, refined, and validated through continuous feedback. The result was a collection shaped by real user experiences, balancing creativity with functionality to deliver more relevant and impactful outcomes.

{ Product Design }

Botanica
Botanica is a set of disposable cutlery that takes shape as decorative plants and corals, with leaves that can be plucked off to use as fork and spoons. As disposables, Botanica adds the important dimension of elegance and fun in a dining setting, complementing the dining experience rather than degrading it. It also serves as a poetic reminder that the meal has come to an end when all the leaves are plucked.

Solaris
Solaris is a lamp that warms up your food at your desk while you work. In addition, tilting Solaris at its side turns it into a heater that keeps you warm during the cold seasons.

Coex
Coex addresses the constraints of compact apartments by emphasizing on simplicity, functionality and versatility. It provides dwellers in small compact apartments the freedom to dictate its use within a confined space. With a quick flip, Coex transforms from a side table to an additional stool that an invited guest might need.

Venus
Venus is a versatile plate that comes with dual side usage, designed to complete your dining experience. One side serves finger food and sweets while the other side holds pasta or soup. Venus has an ergonomic profile that is comfortable to hold and can be easily carried on the move. It is also stackable for easy storage and compactness.

Oryza
Oryza is a disposable dining ware that makes casual dining hassle-free. It uses food safe and waterproof material, comes flat packed, and opens into a translucent and luminescent three-dimensional dining ware, creating a magical experience that excites your senses and enhances your palate. Be it an appetiser, main course or dessert, the ergonomically-designed Oryza also allows you to eat with one hand while holding your food close to you.

Wago
Ideal for dining al fresco, such as a picnic in the park, Wago offers an uninterrupted food experience that takes you from grocery shopping, food preparation to dining. Doubling as a food preparation and dining table, all you need is good food and some fine company.



Technical blueprint of a wheeled suitcase with top, front, back, and side views and dimensions readouts.
“Its work is very simple yet elegant and it’s interesting how it paired different materials together. I can see myself using the products in my house in Milan.”


Debora Ballabio
Italian Designer
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