Thor: I live in London on a traditional narrow boat together with my girlfriend. For me, that’s relevant in my work and professional development because I take inspiration from the way I live. It allows me to think about my needs and how the objects I produce and consume as a human impact the world around me. I’m able to live in an affordable way in a city like London, where rental costs make sustainable living tricky. Living on a boat gives me freedom and takes me to fascinating places: through the city, its green spaces, its high-rise council estates and other in-between spaces that no one knows about.

Thor: When we bought this particular boat about a year and a half ago it was completely empty - a steel shell. I thought the first thing I need to do is get myself a pair of trestles so I can transform this shell into a home. Then I thought: hang on a minute, I’m a product designer so why not design and make a pair of trestles!

Thor: The unusual challenge is of course that Opendesk uses a network of makers all around the world and sheet materials to produce furniture. So I had to think of a way to design a trestle that could be made on a CNC machine, anywhere in the world, in a way that every maker would understand. That’s where the designing of the trestle became very interesting.

The classic trestle is simply a static piece - two solid triangles on top of which anything can be placed. When you are using CNC machine to cut pieces of ply and consider introducing a folding mechanism, designs become complex as hinges are difficult to source reliably around the world. I was more interested in finding a way to connect the elements of the trestle together - a little like Japanese joinery. By cleverly flipping them and using hooks as compression fittings everything can be held in place without glue or fixings.

Thor: The name Bundle Desk comes directly from the design of the trestle itself. It becomes a bundle if you take it apart, should you wish to store it away or move it around. The beautiful thing about this desk is that it can be made very cleverly from one sheet of 24mm birch ply. A big step in the design process was working out how to fit a pair of trestles and one table top onto a single sheet so that it could be made with minimal waste and maximum efficiency. I wanted to give people a set - something to get them started. Two trestles and a table top seemed the most logical way to do this. I hope that the Bundle desk will allow people to be more imaginative about their workplace. Just take it apart, take it with you outside, set it up and work from there for a day! Have a more flexible approach to how and where you work.

Thor: The concept behind Opendesk is one that I’m very attracted to. I don’t think there is a single solution for the environmental, economic and social problems we face. Why would you ship pieces of furniture when you can simply send the digital files? It seems charmingly obvious. In principle, it’s a very simple concept (no doubt highly complex under the hood). Working with Opendesk isn’t simply about sharing my design, I’m equally excited to be a part of the journey and learn. Can we really topple mass manufacturing with distributed making? Can a more open approach to design and making provide designers like me with a viable alternative to traditional royalty-based models? I certainly hope so but it’s unchartered territory. I don’t have an answer but I’m eager to find out 😉