The essentials: 20 unforgettable desks

This large writing desk with two load-bearing drawer units echoes the Art Nouveau style in an elegant and symmetrical manner, with the sinuous profile of the top, the game of correspondence of the shelves, and even the little details on the edges and the design of the handles.

This imposing rationalist desk originally designed by Markelius for his home stands out for its generous shapes, interrupted by shelves, and for the original combination of Macassar ebony wood and nickel-plated metal.

Among the emblems of Bauhaus furniture, S285 desk shows a particularly harmonious composition between tubular steel and wood, as well as curves and edges that make it, besides a great classic, also a timeless piece of furniture.

Cavour desk is the expression of an aerodynamic tension solved through a system of visual counterweights. The contrast between the defined volume of its drawers and the lightness of its supporting structure and its transparent top is its distinctive feature.

Inspired by the same vision that had guided the design process of Eames House in Los Angeles, Charles and Ray conceived a series of functional, but not harsh, pieces of furniture based on the modular concept of a standardized steel structure that could be used to create storage furniture, room dividers, shelves, and so on... This serial imprinting can also be found in the Eames Desk Unit, where the metal base is characterized by plywood and masonite panels of different colors. The adjustable feet make it easy to adapt to the variations of the floor.

The pulleys, with which Franco Albini had already experimented when designing the Veliero library, are a distinctive feature of this suspended and aerial desk, whose elegance derives both from its intrinsically architectural nature and the smooth shape of its components.

With Conoid desk, architect, designer and carpenter George Nakashima exalted the beauty of walnut wood and its grain, sublimating the American vernacular tradition through the creation of an articulated structure that contrasts the parallelepiped shape of the drawers with the exquisite cross-legged base and the free edge top.

This desk is less monolithic and austere compared to the most common executive desks of that period, and it stands out for its welcoming boomerang top and the two pivot side drawer units. Together with other furnishings, the desk was commissioned by Enrico Mattei to Osvaldo Borsani for the ENI building in San Donato Milanese.

With its black lacquered metal frame that supports the top and is connected to a system of suspended drawers, Arco desk stands out for the aerodynamicity of its interlocking profiles that, when replicated in different sizes, can create a series of modular office desks.

This open-plan office system was designed to meet every ergonomics demands even in a small place, but also to adapt to the less rigid and ever-evolving customs and habits of the time. Action Office I was the result of an anthropological study on the office life carried out by Herman Miller’s research and development division. The desk stands out for its polished aluminum T-shaped legs, the small retractable storage units and a closable rolltop where to put the work in the evening and easily find it the next morning.

The most famous grid pattern in the history of design, a spatial grid transformed into a metaphysical threshold towards the exploration of a new imaginary, can also be found in this desl, without of course denying the use of laminate or the linear geometric profile.

With its soft shapes, this bulky and at the same time joyful desk is inspired by the Australian boomerang, but it reinterprets it in a maximalist and asymmetrical manner, hence the sympathetically pop look. Designed as a limited edition, there are only 35 pieces, including a white version for Georges Pompidou at the Elysée.

A fortunate encounter between plastic and metal capable of synthesizing the most virtuous experiments of a decade. Plato is a folding desk with a chromed tubular steel structure and die-cast aluminum joints. The polyurethane top with rounded edges is available in various colors and is distinguished by the presence of many concave spaces where to store stationery.

Charlotte Perriand designed a table with an irregular shape and a tabletop composed of 14 axes: thanks to its fan-like shape, the desk is suitable for multiple uses. Used by a single person, Ventaglio looks like a sophisticated executive desk, where the work space is clearly separated from the space dedicated to storing files and dossiers. When shared, it can accommodate several people thanks to its versatile and variable shape.

The compact shape and smooth edges - and the light and elegant look of the tabletop - make Scrittarello a functional desk that pays close attention to all domestic needs. However, it is the elegant game of balance that determines the charm of this end-of-the-century desk: The base with two pairs of crossed beechwood legs is combined with two smart lateral shelves where to store books or files.

With NesTable, Jasper Morrison designed a new 21st century ‘super-normal’ piece of furniture which isn’t a desk, but rather a lectern to promote a work activity that has now nothing to do with the constraint of having a fixed table. NesTable accommodates the laptop and its height is totally adjustable, so that you can use it with any type of seating.

A desk for the modern era with an unusual canopy structure, Hub not only provides a large and versatile collective workspace, but also the opposite: by outlining a sort of "mental volume" through the blue sound-absorbing panels, it allows you to focus and facilitates individual work even in the presence of other colleagues. Thanks to their linear profile, the single units can be organized into a variety of layouts, as to create a real office life hub.

Kaari is a reinterpretation of Alvar Aalto's teachings, as well as part of an integrated system of discreete and essential shelves, tables and coat racks. As it often happens, the name of the product explains the meaning of the project: “Kaari” means “arch” in Finnish, which is exactly the structural role played by the bent steel band that provides a diagonal support to the entire structure.

Terrazzo is the finish of the moment, but Patricia Urquiola does not take it too seriously. Radicàl Fake is in fact a mockery exercised through the use of Venetian marble, which in the case of this desk is not a solid, cementitious surface, but only a polished resin paste coating. The square, constructivist forms are unusual for Urquiola, yet they allow her to combine the desk and shelves in a compact, multifunctional volume.

Ore Streams is the result of an investigation into the recycling of electronic waste, as well as a line of furniture created by putting together old cases, keyboards, motherboards, and so on. Like and even more than other designers of their generation, the design activity of the Formafantasma duo is inspired by the process, rather than by the form. Yet, the combinatorial outcome of these waste materials has the merit of presenting complete and sophisticated pieces of furniture, far from the often improvised and unfinished aesthetics of modern-day DIY-lovers.