The Piggyback Table by Thomas Heatherwick was nominated for the Design Museum’s Designs of the Year prize before it was even finished – the London museum’s director, Deyan Sudjic, saw it as a prototype last year.The piece comprises two tables that slot together to look like one. The legs of the bottom table split in two at the top, while the legs of the upper table are divided at the bottom, “so they slot together – like a paper tree or two tuning forks,” says project designer Stuart Wood. “When you separate them you have a yin and yang opposite.

designer: thomas heatherwick
producer: magis
materials: wood and aluminum
period: 2008