Workshop objective: to design inclusive tables for the Clair Bois Foundation's restaurants

Name of the table created at the end of the workshop: “Souches”.

As part of the Semaine hors cadre at HEAD – Genève, a workshop led by Chantier Ouvert, Alice Dunoyer, and the Les Deux Rivières sawmill, Roland Freymond, brought together students, assistants and professionals to work on an inclusive design project. The aim: to design and manufacture a prototype table for the Clair Bois Foundation's restaurants, designed to accommodate residents with multiple disabilities, their families and healthcare professionals. Rather than revisit the standards of paramedical furniture, the group explored a sensitive approach, combining comfort, autonomy and aesthetics. The result is a table whose height can be adjusted by means of a crank handle, facilitating access for wheelchair users while offering a comfortable posture for all. This mechanical system was developed by Xavier Plantevin of the HEAD metal workshops in Geneva.

As for the tabletop, it was made from planks of solid Geneva wood from four local species: walnut, maple, oak and cherry. These raw boards were transformed into the finished tray in HEAD's wood workshops, where the students, accompanied by professionals Alexandre Simian and Sebastien Pitteloud, were able to discover and experiment with each stage of the manufacturing process, from raw material to finished object. A concrete way of understanding the technical, sensory and symbolic challenges of furniture design.

The final shape of the tables, designed in a participatory way with the residents of Clair Bois, evokes tree stumps: it encourages free placement around the table, while recalling the anchoring and organic nature of wood. This project is at once a design gesture, a social gesture, and an invitation to rethink places for sharing.