The School Desk and Seat - Draft, In progress

General History

Cultural/Social
The history of the desk is intrinsically linked with the cultural development and practice of reading and writing. Research.
Desks with this specific function were first seen in illustrations from Medieval times.

Philosophical
The desk is linked to the idea and action of learning / working. You sit at a desk to work, to achieve something, to perform a task. The act of sitting at a desk faces you in a particular direction. Unlike a table you can generally only sit at a desk one way, with one orientation. This is the way we interface with the desk, which carries with it a structure and organization. With regards to a school desk, one immediately gets the image of all the desks perfectly aligned, each student sitting behind their desk, studiously facing the blackboard. This aspect of how we interface with the desk also creates a division between sides of the desk. The desk becomes an object that is between the user and other people. In business this aspect is perhaps most apparent, where the division creates a feeling of authority and a difference in status. In this use, the desk has come to be the measure of power. In the case of the school desk it is reversed.

Specific History
This wooden student desk and seat was purchased in the early seventies, at St. Winifred’s school fete, in Whitton, Middlesex, England by my mother, Dorothy, for the sum of two pounds. It was most likely used in the school for some years previous. It had several coats of paint, and apart from the anticipation of buying a bargain and restoring it to its former glory as a lovely piece of wooden furniture, I’m sure in the back of my mother’s mind was also the anticipation of the beginning of my school years, which were just around the corner.
The desk was stripped back to reveal the natural ash grain, and when I was big enough to sit at it, I began to use the desk for the purpose it was designed. I imagine the thought of their first son beginning his school years with his own personal wooden school desk filled my parents with pride. My personal memory of the desk is not very detailed to be honest, but carries a general feeling of childhood, the excitement and anxiety of learning, and the comforting warmth of the wood grain. My brother Aeron took over the desk when he reached the appropriate primary school age and I graduated to a larger, less personal bedroom worktop. It was at the hands of Aeron that the form and the function of the desk would be altered for the future. He had been using the desk for some time, storing his books in it and using it for working at. He recently remembered details such as the ink well which he described as a ‘black hole’ which “always had things in it” like dust, dirt, pencil shavings, paper clips. Aeron had recently been given a penknife by our father, and during a bout of procrastination had the strong urge to put the penknife to use. He began by dropping the knife into the desk lid, and by rotating it, found it dug out of the desk a wonderful cone shaped hole. He recalls not being aware of causing damage. On the contrary, he believed he was adding to the desk and continued to make numerous holes in a starburst pattern, whilst anticipating showing mum his creative achievement.



Details of the original desk include a hinged lid under which books could be placed, a groove that runs across the top of the desk for holding pens and pencils, and a circular hole on the top right for accommodating an ink well. The seat also has a hinged top allowing access to the hollow body for further storage of books or reading and writing materials. These practical design features act to define the utility of this desk as a place to not only read and write, but store their books and work. It carries with it a sense of ownership, a child’s little office or place of work. A place they might personalise with stickers, or perhaps even engrave their name on the inside of the lid.