To some, the society moves according to the flow of the majority. Others believe that great nations move according to the people, and their development. Easterners however, believe that the impact of society comes from the small and unnoticed changes of each individual, thus leading to a modest culture that’s more passive. This society is described by Seo Jeonghwa and Hanna Chung, the designers of this ‘ripple effect’ tea table.

I personally love unique design and creative ideas, and this one among the coolest idea. We’ve seen aquarium tables and other sort of design, but one that shows the water flow and ripples once you move the objects, is really amazing. This is as part of his graduation project for IM masters design academy Eindhoven, ‘ripple effect tea table’ by Korean industrial designer Seo Jeonghwa in partnership with Hanna Chung is a reflection of eastern mentality towards social relationships.

Ripples are formed through the movements of the tea cup and saucer each time by the users. Through this project, Seo and Hanna emphasize on the importance of considering cultural mentality and context as a backdrop to their work. It’s like the ripples from the source resonates and affects the surrounding, like our culture and society. Slow, yet constructive and obvious.

“The project was aimed to propose a design method that the psychological characteristics of local culture become a seed of design context. The results presented herein provide an interface for examining the way of considering cultural differences in psychological level in design process.”

“The water layer on the table top makes the ripples by the movements of users. Tea plate floats on the water while drinking tea. One’s action can cause an impact on the whole situation on this table.”

The water layer is merely 2mm thick, and sits on top of a black glossy table top that is painted using high quality car paint and lacquered on waterproof ash. Then a soft and hallow ceramic layer is placed on top of the thin water. The interesting thing is that the ceramic layer is designed and placed at a certain method to withstand the light weight of the plate, which usually is also ceramic. This means that there will be no ripples if the tea cup is not placed onto the plate.

[hannaseo via Designboom]