Future <i> Desks</i> ? Capt. Kirk Only Needed a Chair

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — If your office desk doesn’t have space for your fax machine, telephone, videocassette recorder and, of course, personal computer, you may be ready now for the office desk of the future.

Those were the prerequisites for six futuristic-looking prototypes designed by Southern California art students and unveiled Tuesday at Steelcase, Inc., the world’s largest office furniture maker.

Among the models was one with a tiny marble conference table that folds up like an ironing board into a shelving tower with space for a VCR, fax machine and computer. Protruding from the sides of the tower are large fans, used as office dividers. When everything is folded up, it becomes a free-standing unit on wheels.

Another model has a small work space with a computer but is linked to a larger station with what appears to be a low, round coffee table in the center. Images from the computer terminal are projected onto a flat monitor on the table, which is surrounded by three lighting columns.

“The worker reaction? Some would probably be attracted to them, and then some would wonder, ‘how did it land?’ ” said Paul Cornell, manager of behavioral and environmental research at Steelcase.

Nineteen students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena worked for three months on the Steelcase-sponsored project, called Smart Box, which was then displayed at Steelcase’s Corporate Development Center.