Earthquake-proof table by Arthur Brutter is the Daily Pic by Blake Gopnik

This earthquake-proof school table, designed and tested to withstand falling rubble, was conceived by the young Israeli Arthur Brutter, while he was still a student at the venerable Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. (Click on the image to watch a video about Brutter’s piece.) Sometimes, if only rarely, superb function ought to count as an aesthetic position. Just as a great painting or photo can get some of its greatness from what it points to, so certain purely functional objects can point to the needs that they fill, and to how these have not been filled before. It’s a “style” you could call Functional Realism.

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