Ferm Living & Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng-designed wavy aluminium table ‘Dal’ is launched to add oomph to your house

Danish homeware brand Ferm Living and Norwegian designer Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng have created a minimalist, unique wavy aluminium table called Dal. The furniture has dual functionality. It can serve as a table as well as a bench. Initially carved in wood by Øfstedal Eng, the table is now made of sand-casted recycled aluminium.

The Dal table was publicly launched during the 3 Days of Design festival. But the shape of the table, which is often described as a mountainside in the Gudbrandsdalen Valley, Norway, was first unveiled at Ferm Living's showroom in Copenhagen by Ana Maria Øfstedal Eng and Trine Andersen, Ferm Living's founder.

Norwegian designer says that organic silhouettes and shapes often seen around have inspired her to craft this table.

"I use nature as an inspirational source for all my work, and I was on a trip one day in the mountains and there was almost an organic cave running through them. I was mesmerised, so I wanted to capture that and take it further into something functional," explained Øfstedal Eng.

The original model of the table had three to four legs, but later on, the collaborators chose to produce it with two.

Aluminium has been used as a raw material for the table so that it is easy to transport and suitable for both indoor and outdoor uses, explained Trine Andersen. According to her, this unique piece of furniture represents the perfect example of 'design meets art'. It is meant to exude the right amount of elegance of your house as a stool, side table or sculptural object.

Andersen said, "Is it a piece of furniture or is it art? We are, of course, a commercial company creating functional pieces, but we love to add a layer of something that isn't commercial; something that is there to create emotion or ask a question."

The table has a rough texture since it is sandblasted, but roughness is what we all experience in nature, said Andersen. It is cast in three pieces in India due to the volume of aluminium scrap and sand-casting skills available there.

"We choose to produce where the raw materials are and where the handcraft is," Andersen explained. "We are so reliant on having skilled producers, using factories that have been in the family for generations."

Referencing the minimal waste in the design process, Andersen added: "there is beauty when economics and sustainability have the same interest, because material is also money."

The Dal table marks the third collaboration between Ferm Living and Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng.