 
  
  It seems almost impossible to imagine a dining room  table with essentially no surface area - after all, having a flat place  to set down your plates and silverware is almost an assumed part of this  central and ubiquitous piece of home furniture by definition. 
 
   
 The more you see, however, the more it makes you wonder: do we in fact  need tables at which to dine? They take up so much space right in the  heart of a home. While we might think of them as a core gathering place  within a house, is there any reason it cannot be a nearly  two-dimensional line with a slight vertical plane rather than a massive  three-dimensional surface around which we sit?                  
 
