Landscape Forms introduced Take-Out, a modern and more versatile offering in the popular connected seating table category.
“For nearly forty years, the Carousel table with attached seating has been one of Landscape Forms’ best-selling products—it’s robust, anchored and designed to withstand the rigor of the highest-traffic outdoor spaces,” says Landscape Forms Chief Creative Officer, Kirt Martin. “So with Take-Out, we wanted to build on this connected seating dining table category by creating something a bit lighter in scale, something a bit more nimble that affords landscape architects more freedom in its arrangement.”
Designed by Rodrigo Torres, Take- Out brings modern refinement, simplified lines and improved versatility to the attached seating category. “The beautiful challenge was to create something simple, powerful, bold, iconic, with strong value and able to be manufactured in the US,” describes Torres. “So with Take-Out we used the minimum amount of shapes to achieve the maximum effect—a structure that’s robust in its construction, flexible in its function, fluid in its simplicity and playful in its attitude.”
Light enough to be picked up, arranged and rearranged, Take-Out opens up new ways for people to connect in outdoor spaces—face-to- face or abreast, an intimate chat or a large group gathering. Five different silhouettes—a single, double, triple, left triple and right triple—can either stand alone or work together in myriad arrangements.
“It’s about creating options for both ‘me space’ and ‘we space’ across a range of scales,” continues Martin. “The single-seater, that’s ‘me space.’ But if you arrange them face-to-face or side-by-side, all of a sudden that becomes ‘we space.’”
Placed side-by-side, Take-Out can form a long run of seating and surface for group meals, meetings or brainstorming sessions. Arranged in a grid, Take-Out makes for a lively outdoor café atmosphere. Arranged face-to-face, Take-Out can form an ever-expandable communal picnic table. One-sided tables are especially suited to maximize the usability of edge spaces or spaces abutting walls and dividers.
Take-Out’s minimalist form is designed to maximize its function, comfort and accessibility. With powdercoated sheet metal tops and extruded aluminum verticals, Take-Out’s design and component materials are simple, concise and intended to make a compelling visual statement with a strong value proposition. Contact points are fitted with nylon glides for enhanced mobility and durability in rearranging. Elegant details like gently curved edges eliminate pressure points on the elbows and behind the knees while also lending Take-Out a warm, welcoming gesture. Easy entry from either side or from behind makes ingress and egress simple and intuitive even with other occupants at the table.
“It’s always a compelling feature when you can easily adapt a single product to achieve totally different and discrete outcomes, so we put a lot of design energy into how Take- Out works intelligently as a system,” says Kirt Martin. “And I think what we’ve achieved is pretty significant. With Take-Out, you can simply create arrangements that run the gamut of seating and surface needs. It’s an important tool that I can see being used in all sorts of contexts ranging from adaptable outdoor dining spaces to flexible breakout spaces in the office or on campus.”