Uma Sidetable

During ABERTO3, held at the Tomie Ohtake House-Studio and the Chu Ming House, ETEL unveiled new pieces by Alan Chu, son of Chu Ming.

This marked the first time the architect designed furniture pieces detached from a specific architectural setting. In architectural practice, it is common for professionals to design furniture and objects in response to spatial demands. On this singular occasion, however, Alan Chu embarked on a personal journey of experimentation, developing design pieces independent of space.

His work is guided primarily by emotion and sensation, with rationality entering only as a secondary layer. The Uma Side Table emerged within this context. It is a piece born from emotional reasoning, shaped by gestures of subtraction and subversion. At first glance, it evokes a sense of estrangement, as its "shadow" becomes its structure. We are unconsciously caught off guard, and only afterward do we understand how the piece functions. Alan operates in this moment before thought, in what he calls the "sensory effect."

The architect himself describes the table:

“By leaning on its own shadow, the Uma Table challenges conventional notions of form and structure, subtly shifting our perception from matter to light, from the dense to the ethereal.”