DIFFA Dining By Design 2010
About this project
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!
—Sir Walter Scott, Scottish author & novelist, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17
Dining By Design is an annual charity fundraising event sponsored by the Design Industries Foundation Fighting Aids (DIFFA). The event features a formal dinner where patrons dine at over 60 tables and dining areas–each designed and showcased by different architects, interior designers and fashion designers. The designs vary from the novel to the whimsical, but all must fit into an 11-foot cube area.
ABA was invited to participate as a designer, and our submission to the 2010 New York City Dining by Design event is one of reflection on the experiences that have captured the world’s attention in the recent past. The design won the ASID Imagine Top Pick 2010 award for the event, and the SARA NY 2010 Design Award of Honor.
ABA designed a woven “web” that surrounds the dining environment to remind us of how we are responsible to our immediate dining companions and to the world at large. No longer are we solitary creatures fending only for ourselves. Our world is becoming increasingly connected and complex, all at the same time. We are all caught in the same web of our own doing; each person a contributor never seeing where his or her own strand starts or ends.
But we see the effects of the web clearly in our daily lives, as any action by one can have the potential to start a ripple felt by tens, hundreds, thousands, and even millions of others. At times, this can be devastating as we all experienced in the Great Recession financial crisis. And we also see this in the outcry for help from all corners of the world that have been victims of natural disasters.
We all try to look for answers and order in life, but all we find is the chaos of the woven web.
Every piece of surface, from the seating to the dining table, continues this theme of the woven web, including the dining table itself where it forms the framework for the flower centerpiece. The flowers rise upward from the table, symbolizing the hope of untanglement and order in our lives.
Visit http://diffa.org/ for more info about DIFFA’s cause.
