ThinkingWorks

  • 2017

  • Product
    Furniture and Lighting

Commissioned By:

ThinkingWorks

Designed In:

Australia/UK

Diva is a wood and aluminium worktable system which has the capacity to incorporate technology seamlessly. Diva incorporates concealed cables within its wooden legs and hides technology behind sliding formed plywood panels. The aluminium subframe and ”heels’ are available in a number of powder coated finishes.


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  • CHALLENGE
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  • IMPACT
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  • With Diva, there is always more than meets the eye. Beyond the striking wooden exterior, you will discover a host of design elements and finishes that can be changed to follow new design trends. Die cast aluminium components are powder coated in a variety of colours, or plated in striking metallic finishes. When designing Diva we considered how the table looks from underneath. One of the visual features of Diva is the moulded plywood undercarriage, an extra design feature not seen on tables before. Whether it's to hold cables in place, or when Diva is used on mezzanine floors or within buildings that feature glass wall atriums, we wanted Diva to look good to everyone and from all angles.

  • Powerboxes are easily accessed from the table top via a hinged lid. Power and data can run from the powerbox to any of the legs. Data will run down the leg and power will connect into a Neutrik fitting which is a simple plug-in and twist operation. The pre-wired leg features a segregation plate to provide a barrier for power and data leads. A second Neutrik fitting is positioned at the “heel” of the leg ready for a power lead to be fed to a floorbox or wall socket. In order to access services, we designed the under-carriage sliding panel system, which also acts to conceal power leads and powerboxes providing a clean finish to the table. Power leads can be plugged and unplugged by any untrained office worker.

  • Diva offers power to be brought from the floor (a floor-box or wall socket) to the Neutrik outlet that is purpose fitted to the heel of the leg. Power leads can be easily and safely plugged and unplugged by any office worker to bring power to the table. The leg can be fitted with a separate power lead which runs inside the leg (totally concealed) up to the underside of the table top. Using another Neutrik connector at the top of the leg assembly, a power lead can be connected from the top of leg Neutrik plug to the Seamless Powerbox. Power leads are connected to CMS adaptors for connecting to the CMS power sockets. The wiring system designed into Diva can be safely operated by any untrained office worker.

  • An integral part of the design brief was to uphold the company's sustainability goals. This was achieved through clever use of FSC timbers and efficiently designed aluminium components. Moreover, the beam has been designed using Finite Element Analysis to provide the strongest structure possible whilst using the least material possible.

    Diva was designed with a strategy to minimise the number of unique components making it not only cheaper to manufacture but easier to assemble. Having fewer components also increases quality as there are fewer dimensional parameters to manage. Fewer components also reduce the potential for out of tolerance dimensional creep.

    Diva is a unique design that has captured the attention and imagination of our market in both form and function and early indicators point to Diva being one of our all-time best selling products. Diva encapsulates everything we have learnt in Research and Development so far.

    Diva was designed by ThinkingWorks in collaboration with Jones and Partners. Diva was designed in such a way as to be able to have tables up to 4000mm in length with just 4 legs. The Diva system of cable management and servicing by non-technical users is perhaps the defining unique feature of the design. It produces an aesthetically clean appearance and allows maximum user friendliness in accessing data and power cables. Moreover, the undercarriage sliding panel system is a unique feature of Diva and has not been seen in conference tables before.