A dramatic, two-ton art piece doubling as a communal bar table was recently installed at the InterContinental Hong Kong’s new Lobby Lounge. The hotel created this interesting video chronicling the table installation by artist/designer Jake Walker of the Ballistic Architecture Machine , an art, landscape, and architectural design firm with offices in Beijing and St. Louis.
Hand crafted in Shanghai, the free-flowing table is made of imported woods, including African Padauk, African Rosewood and American burled poplar. The finished table has a unique amoeba-like shape with a subtle Yin and Yang influence. The base resembles the belly of a whale while the tabletop is finished with a high gloss varnish designed to reflects the lighting in the Lobby and create the illusion that the table is floating within the space.
As described in the three-minute video, the table’s free-form shape, size and weight created unique challenges for the design team when it came time to move and install the massive structure. A customized steel cage was built to assemble and transport the table, while the hotel’s main doors were removed to accommodate the four-ton apparatus as it was wheeled into the space. The table was then strategically placed in its permanent home at the heart of the newly redesigned lobby lounge
The hotel’s Managing Director Jean-Jacques Reibel worked closely with Walker and his team to see the project through from start to finish. “Jean-Jacques had a vision; we just gave it form,” Walker explained.