Ordinal

Origin

Ordinal is a collection of tables by Michael Anastassiades for Cassina. The dining table dates to 2018 on Cassina's sheet 499, and a low version in marble followed in 2024 on sheet 496. Cassina frames the collection as a meeting of the London-based designer's metalwork with the skills of its own carpenters, and says the slim legs were a challenge for its Research Unit.

Design language

The collection's recurring idea is a thin top carried by slim legs that stand diagonally at the corners or ends, which Cassina says gives guests extra space. Cassina offers the dining tables with lacquered or veneered tops, in single-finish marble, or with marble tops over aluminium legs, and says the veneered models have solid wood edges. The low version keeps that sculptural character in marble and adds a sheet metal underpanel beneath the top. Colour is handled through materials: Cassina's sheet 499 pictures an anodised aluminium base in a burgundy tone under a matt burgundy lacquered top, and a natural oak top over the same base.

Key pieces

• Ordinal Table: the dining table, in rectangular, square and oval forms, 73 cm high.
• Ordinal Low Table: the 32 cm high version, in marble throughout, offered square or rectangular.

Across the collection Cassina's drawings run from 140 cm squares up to a rectangle 280 cm long and an oval 260 cm long. It also adds that the dining chair Flutz, by the same designer, is meant to be used with the Ordinal table.

Designer

Cassina describes Michael Anastassiades as a Cypriot designer based in London, who launched his studio in 1994 and whose work sits between fine art and design and aims to provoke dialogue, participation and interaction.