Alex de Rijke commissioned Barnby & Day to create a beautiful, large, round, laminated dining table. Alex is known for pioneering innovative uses of timber within the construction industry and designed the first ever use of hardwood CLT, ‘Endless Stair’ for the London Design Festival 2013. In an article entitled, ‘Timber is the new concrete’, he predicted that timber would be the dominant construction material of the 21st Century. Applying this thinking to furniture design, Barnby & Day laminated American tulipwood and turned a hollow round table for Alex de Rijke who wanted the table to look very solid but in fact be very light.

Alex de Rijke wanted a large, circular laminated tulipwood dining table. ‘We know everything takes place at the table,’ he said. ‘The best decisions are made, homework is done and computers are used.’ A round table is, he said, more democratic. 'It means that children have as much say as adults.' 

Furthermore he wanted to work with tulipwood again because he liked the fact that it is strong and light and abundant. And he likes the way it looks, ‘the liveliness of the grain because it has grown in different microclimates’. The idea of a table that looked solid but was actually hollow also appealed.