CURBSIDE TABLE

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The CURBSIDE TABLE created by KVA Matx, is an urban furniture design for the emerging infrastructure of public care in the time of Covid-19. Located at curbside, it serves neighbors and small business as a portable, contactless transfer station where goods and essential items are exchanged within easy reach.

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As we slowly re-enter the public world, the CURBSIDE TABLE provides a surface that we can safely share —at different moments in time. Drawing on traditions of street markets, threshold stands, and micro-storefronts, it offers a forward-looking vision for collective urban practices of caring and sharing.

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Created and fabricated in Boston by KVA Matx, the CURBSIDE TABLE is milled from simple, sustainable plywood. It assembles from flat to form with no tools or hardware in under 10 seconds.

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The table surface has a protective, durable paint finish that can be wiped clean and disinfected. When not in use, the CURBSIDE TABLE can be disassembled, carried by hand, and stored flat. As we inhabit this devastating health crisis, the team at KVA chooses to focus on design that brings people together safely to support the diversity of urban public life. As a form of “counter” intelligence, the CURBSIDE TABLE is a social action that offers a new format for urban care in the face of increasing division, isolation, and inequity in our cities.

Date: 2020
Status: Ongoing
Client:
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Design Team:
Frano Violich, FAIA; Managing Principal
Sheila Kennedy, FAIA; Principal Consulting on Design
Benjamin Widger, AIA; Project Architect
Nick Johnson; Karaghen Hudson; Greta Wong; Project Designers