I’m a woodworker. My biggest ongoing project, the thing I’m probably going to write a book about, is the design of computer desks. Because I’m not convinced we’ve ever gotten it right as a species. The art and craft of furniture hasn’t really embraced electronics. Like 2 centuries ago they made writing desks where the geometry of the desk was designed specifically for the process of handwriting, but with computer desks or TV stands etc. you get It’s a pillar desk crossed with a dining room cabinet, and I guess we’ll drill some holes for wires."
Researching this, google image searching for “computer desk” returns the following results:
video game streamer setups with thick tops, metal tube frames, all dark and l it by magenta and blue LEDs
Hip trendy Cupertino shit where the desk has a Mac that is turned on despite not being plugged into anything, a potted plant, and little else
a slab of wood on T-shaped legs, this is what gamers buy to put their computers and mice on now because we’ve given up.
old photos of people’s actual desks from the late 90’s and 2000’s, as lived in. Those Staples brand particle board and/or metal tube desks allegedly designed for computers but invariably there’s not enough room for all the stuff people want around their desks, so they’re crammed with too many monitors, computers, speakers…to this day they make “two speakers and a subwoofer” systems for PCs, and no one in the history of the world has ever had a good place to put that subwoofer. And that’s before all the personal clutter that ends up on the desktop. The keyboard and mouse end up crammed wherever they’ll fit, probably not in ergonomic or easy to use places, yet everyone made it work.
Having grown up in the 90’s and 2000’s, having had a desk just like that myself, I find a certain coziness in that that isn’t in the carefully arranged marketing photos that look cleaner and sleeker. This is someone’s personal space. This is where they played through Riven and Day of the Tentacle. I’m a member of a generation of people who all have weird personal touch typing techniques because we really learned to type so we could chat with friends on AIM or MSN messenger, and it’s places like that where it happened. And the focal point of those spaces? A big ol vacuum tube. VGA CRT. They’re not really nice to be around, but are flat panels?
I’m really interested in where you are going with this and would enjoy following your process.
One challenge I think you are up against has been the fairly constant evolution in size and form of computing device and peripheral. I’m interested in how you would approach this, because I’m my view, good anything is timeless, furniture included. But the computer desks of 20 years ago make little to no sense now because the shape and support requirements of Our moniters and what not have changed so much.
In my experience, it’s the monitors that have changed the most. In 2005, I had a ~mATX mid tower sized PC (in fact it’s still in my possession) with a 2.1 speaker system (also still in my possession) , a keyboard and trackpad, a UPS, and an inkjet printer, with a single 19" CRT monitor. Now, I’ve got an mATX mid tower PC, a keyboard and mouse, an inkjet printer, 2.1 speakers, a 34" ultrawide flat panel, and a 1080p panel.
Norm Abram built a computer desk on the New Yankee Workshop, which was basically a pillar desk with false drawers that house the PC tower itself on one side and a printer/scanner on the other, with the monitor and speakers on the desktop, and the keyboard and mouse in the false center drawer as a keyboard tray. That design would hold up as you could span a large flat panel or two across that desk, but I still think cable management is a nightmare, there’s no room for a UPS, subwoofer, a switch or router, etc. Plus it’s kind of a bad idea to put the computer in an enclosed space like that, electronics get hot.
It’s a pillar desk bent around a computer not unlike a Honda Civic bent around a pine tree.
I can say this from experience, these desks that close up to look like some other, older kind of furniture but open up to be a computer workstation stop getting closed up, and then they look kind of trashy because they’re always hanging open.
I also find the idea of hiding the electronics to be kind of wrong-headed. Apple is as much a jewelry company as they are a tech company; their users don’t want to hide their hardware, they want to be seen with it. Gaming PC enthusiasts often build PCs to be seen, in styled cases with glass side panels, showy lighting, you can get designer PCIe cables and dye for the water in your cooling loop. A gaming PC can be an art project in and of itself, its owner doesn’t want to hide it in a cubby.
I think you’ve really got the right idea there. Even my pc which is in an old crappy case isn’t something I want to hide. A desk that keeps it out of the way, easily accessible, and accentuates its presence is much better than one that assumes I’m ashamed to have a computer. That said plenty of drawer space for other stuff is great.
the other thing I think you’ve got going for you is that in general, computer just… look better. we’re well past the grey box on a bookshelf days.
But at the same time, even handsome computer builds are pretty unique. It would seem like with all the available variations, you are kind of stuck building a deck in relationship to a single machine. Is there any way around this, considering, at least in my experience, I replace my machines far more often then my a desk.
Well, there are ATX standards. I have noticed a fairly recent trend for making computer cases oddly wide as part of the “fish tank” aesthetic. But again, with the exception of an ITX build I did, most of my computers have been ATX mid- or mini-tower size
This may take a minute to articulate.
I’m a woodworker. My biggest ongoing project, the thing I’m probably going to write a book about, is the design of computer desks. Because I’m not convinced we’ve ever gotten it right as a species. The art and craft of furniture hasn’t really embraced electronics. Like 2 centuries ago they made writing desks where the geometry of the desk was designed specifically for the process of handwriting, but with computer desks or TV stands etc. you get It’s a pillar desk crossed with a dining room cabinet, and I guess we’ll drill some holes for wires."
Researching this, google image searching for “computer desk” returns the following results:
Having grown up in the 90’s and 2000’s, having had a desk just like that myself, I find a certain coziness in that that isn’t in the carefully arranged marketing photos that look cleaner and sleeker. This is someone’s personal space. This is where they played through Riven and Day of the Tentacle. I’m a member of a generation of people who all have weird personal touch typing techniques because we really learned to type so we could chat with friends on AIM or MSN messenger, and it’s places like that where it happened. And the focal point of those spaces? A big ol vacuum tube. VGA CRT. They’re not really nice to be around, but are flat panels?
I’m really interested in where you are going with this and would enjoy following your process.
One challenge I think you are up against has been the fairly constant evolution in size and form of computing device and peripheral. I’m interested in how you would approach this, because I’m my view, good anything is timeless, furniture included. But the computer desks of 20 years ago make little to no sense now because the shape and support requirements of Our moniters and what not have changed so much.
In my experience, it’s the monitors that have changed the most. In 2005, I had a ~mATX mid tower sized PC (in fact it’s still in my possession) with a 2.1 speaker system (also still in my possession) , a keyboard and trackpad, a UPS, and an inkjet printer, with a single 19" CRT monitor. Now, I’ve got an mATX mid tower PC, a keyboard and mouse, an inkjet printer, 2.1 speakers, a 34" ultrawide flat panel, and a 1080p panel.
Norm Abram built a computer desk on the New Yankee Workshop, which was basically a pillar desk with false drawers that house the PC tower itself on one side and a printer/scanner on the other, with the monitor and speakers on the desktop, and the keyboard and mouse in the false center drawer as a keyboard tray. That design would hold up as you could span a large flat panel or two across that desk, but I still think cable management is a nightmare, there’s no room for a UPS, subwoofer, a switch or router, etc. Plus it’s kind of a bad idea to put the computer in an enclosed space like that, electronics get hot.
It’s a pillar desk bent around a computer not unlike a Honda Civic bent around a pine tree.
I can say this from experience, these desks that close up to look like some other, older kind of furniture but open up to be a computer workstation stop getting closed up, and then they look kind of trashy because they’re always hanging open.
I also find the idea of hiding the electronics to be kind of wrong-headed. Apple is as much a jewelry company as they are a tech company; their users don’t want to hide their hardware, they want to be seen with it. Gaming PC enthusiasts often build PCs to be seen, in styled cases with glass side panels, showy lighting, you can get designer PCIe cables and dye for the water in your cooling loop. A gaming PC can be an art project in and of itself, its owner doesn’t want to hide it in a cubby.
I think you’ve really got the right idea there. Even my pc which is in an old crappy case isn’t something I want to hide. A desk that keeps it out of the way, easily accessible, and accentuates its presence is much better than one that assumes I’m ashamed to have a computer. That said plenty of drawer space for other stuff is great.
the other thing I think you’ve got going for you is that in general, computer just… look better. we’re well past the grey box on a bookshelf days.
But at the same time, even handsome computer builds are pretty unique. It would seem like with all the available variations, you are kind of stuck building a deck in relationship to a single machine. Is there any way around this, considering, at least in my experience, I replace my machines far more often then my a desk.
Well, there are ATX standards. I have noticed a fairly recent trend for making computer cases oddly wide as part of the “fish tank” aesthetic. But again, with the exception of an ITX build I did, most of my computers have been ATX mid- or mini-tower size
Holy shit this sounds rad as fuck. I hope you do eventually write that book.