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Trade terms for professionals and design studios
The name is the structure: run your eye under the Rail desktop and you find the rail itself — a metal beam with wood inserts, spanning between legs of solid wood. British offices have a long memory for honest engineering, and this is a desk that shows its workings the way a good bridge does: timber where you touch it, steel where it earns its keep, nothing dressed up as something it is not.
Above the beam, Gianantonio Perin and Giorgio Topan gave Bralco a designer desk top with a diamond cut — thinning towards the edge, gathering thickness at the centre — so the whole desk reads light without giving up substance. The oak comes in six voices, natural to tobacco to Carbon; there are twelve matt lacquers, chromed handles, and a stitched leather insert for the detail that rewards a second look. A shaped modesty panel keeps the meeting side of the desk discreet.
The official line deserves quoting: Rail's pure profiles «impose no social hierarchy, but communicate status by virtue of formal elegance». For the director who prefers the glass ceiling under the elbows rather than above the head, there is a tempered glass top with an integrated wooden shelf, 220 cm wide — and the whole collection, storage included, is conceived, designed and made in Italy. Prestige, here, is load-bearing.
Collection: Rail
Manufacturer: Bralco (Susegana, Treviso — Italy)
Design: Gianantonio Perin and Giorgio Topan
Wood tops: 30 mm (1.2 in) MDF veneered on both faces, solid wood rounded edge banding; tapered and bevelled perimeter (the diamond cut); water-based staining with clear acrylic finish or open-pore lacquer; 80 mm (3.1 in) chromed cable port
Glass tops: 12 mm (0.47 in) clear tempered glass, polished bevelled edge, anchored to chromed beams by metal spacers
Leather meeting tables: 28 mm (1.1 in) MDF top faced in leather or eco-leather on both sides
Legs: solid wood trestle form, 53 mm (2.1 in) thick, 80 x 69 cm (31.5 x 27.2 in) h, adjustable foot
Beams: 5 mm (0.2 in) laser-cut steel plate — matt black for wood/leather tops, chromed with solid wood spacers for glass tops
Desks: W 180 x D 80 · W 200/220/240 x D 100 · W 220 x D 110 · H 75 cm (70.9 x 31.5 · 78.7/86.6/94.5 x 39.4 · 86.6 x 43.3 · 29.5 in); version resting on service unit W 115-192
Meeting tables: round D 120/160, triangular 179.4, square 140x140 (also high, H 105), shaped 240-280 x 120 up to 360-440 x 120 seating 12/14
Power: veneered top access with tray, socket block, vertical cable riser with brush
Drawer and service units: W 80-240.9 x D 40 x H 62.8; E1-certified 18 mm (0.71 in) melamine carcasses on a 38 mm (1.5 in) plinth with solid wood feet; tops also veneered or ceramic
Credenzas: W 160.3/200.6/240.9 x D 40 x H 62.5 or 102.5 cm (63.1/79/94.8 x 15.7 x 24.6 or 40.4 in)
Modesty panel: 18 mm (0.71 in), veneered to match the top
Finishes: oak in six readings plus black/white lacquered oak, 12 matt lacquers, leather (12) or eco-leather (14) inserts with visible seam, glass, black or chrome metal; handles in wood, lacquer or plastic
Certifications (Bralco technical sheet): company certified ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001; CATAS member; 100% recycled wood panels; TSCA Title VI — California 93120 Phase 2 formaldehyde compliance
Declared recyclability: metal 100%, wood 100%, plastic 99.5%
For specifiers: BIM/Revit files available
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Five checks for facility managers and designers who want substance under the styling — with Rail as the worked example.
