The coffee table has benefited from some major adaptations since the British increase in demand for coffee tables in 1750 where tea drinking was at the height of fashion. Stelios Mousarris’ Wave City coffee table exemplifies just how far the design of the coffee table has come, from the 17th century to today.

Cypriot-based Designer Stelios Mousarris completed his degree in model making at Bournemouth University, soon after he went onto work for British architect, Fosters and Partners as a model maker and eventually moved on to undertake an assistant designer role at Duffy London. In 2014 he launched his own company, Mousarris, creating high quality pieces of furniture.

The inspiration for Stelios Mousarris’ Wave City coffee table came from tsunami waves on a documentary he was watching five months ago. He knew then that he wanted to create something that implemented the ocean with the use of buildings – combining something organic with something man-made. With Stelios’ personal aim to keep a viewer’s attention longer than 10 seconds, this structural piece of art exemplifies Stelios’ design style exceptionally, with an element of surprise.

The Wave City coffee table is still in production, with Stelios developing his design daily. He is also currently in the process of designing a dining table version of the Wave City table. It is produced using old methods, combined with new methods with the use of steel wood and 3D print technology.

Stelios describes his Wave City coffee table as a “sculpture”, opposed to a coffee table, which is visible from the 60 3D printed buildings that are applied to the table. Each one of these buildings requires several hours of modelling, with the use of a custom-made 3D printer, each building is produced from a high quality wood filament. Stelios works alongside a local steel manufacturer, Nikolas Koumbarou, to produce the curve design of the table using steel and wood to achieve the curve design.

It takes around two months to produce one table due to the detail that is involved in the design, particularly with the individual buildings that sit underneath the coffee table. The table is finished with wax to protect it from any spillages, and is accompanied by an acrylic case that protects the buildings from damage.