Sputnik 5: An Innovatively Ergonomic Russian Coffee Table

The year was 1960. The historic flight of Sputnik II was made possible by design and structure ingenuity that was developed to protect and sustain Earth-born life and simultaneously withstand interstellar pressure. Fast forward 60 years and Russian innovation strikes again in the form of a Sputnik-inspired coffee table.

The flat marble exterior has been paired with an interior that is able to support plant life. It is aptly called Sputnik-5. With minimalist qualities like straight planes, and a light palate, the pyramid-shaped table is composed of multiple parts. Each portion can be pulled apart so the elements can be used as one constructed furniture item, or as individual art pieces. Instead of circling the Earth as the spacecraft Sputnik II did, Sputnik-5, the table, encircles Earth. Small plants can be housed in the marble slab’s earthen core, giving it an added level of functionality.

Russian industrial designer Maxim Scherbakov created the table in 2014, melding two household items – merging the utility of a pot with the usability of a table. He explains the product saying ‘The table acts as a watchman of a plant bursting from the aperture of the marble surface’. No longer can pots packed with soil be overturned, ruining magazines that have carefully been fanned for optimum display. Belka and Strelka’s satellite is known as Korabl-Sputnik 2 by Russians and Sputnik-5 in the West, which makes it all the more interesting that the Saint Petersburg-based designer chose the latter as the table’s label.

Of course, Sputnik-5 is not the first of its kind in at least one aspect. There is a legacy of art, and even other household items that abstractly or literally draw inspiration from, and pay homage to, the Soviet’s foray into the exosphere. Many pieces tend to focus on Sputnik I, the first ever manmade object to orbit our planet. Often credited with developing Teflon, tang and edible toothpaste, space travel’s design contributions now range from teapots to tables. What really makes Scherbakov’s piece unique is that the concept and shape of the table allow it to straddle the line of industrial purpose and astronomical art: a branch of artistry inspired by all things space-related, including intergalactic technology.

Once greenery starts sprawling out of the table’s top it pulls the household feature into other sub-realms of design like plantscaping, functional art, and organic art. Due to its growing biological components and ever-changing nature the table in itself embodies the art of life and living. Maxim’s body of work, viewable on Instagram, often reflects the idea of pushing boundaries. His other furniture designs strive for harmony between design and ergonomics, and have a minimalist aesthetic while maintaining utility. This is showcased in his piece P-11, a chair that requires no fasteners to put it together.

Dichotomous to the core in function and design, Sputnik-5 strikes balance. It has the ability to be two things at once, both extra-terrestrial and earthy in nature; not fully space art, neither fully industrial enterprise; the hush of plant activity below, the buzz of human activity above; life teeming within a cold marble surface. It is a melding of science and art, and it is Russian inventiveness and human imagination at their best. Chasah West

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