Wouter Scheublin’s 2006 design for a Walking Table echoes Theo Jansen’s iconic Strandbeest: the complex mechanical linkages on the legs allow the table to walk when it’s given a moderately firm shove.
Scheublin made 8 of them, and, judging from their conspicuous absence from his store, it’s a good bet that they’ve sold out in the intervening decade.
Regardless, it’s the second example of the genre that, until now, I believed to be a Jansen-ish one-off, and thus holds out the promise for whole phyla of walking furniture and objects.
In 2013, Boston09 — an engineering student — published an open hardware remake of the table; having reviewed the project, I’m now wondering about e.g. drinks cabinets, tea trolleys, and, of course, chairs.
[Scheublin & Lindeman]
(Thanks, Rodney Hoffman!)