In Spain, the aluminium football table is a working part of social life. Bars, clubs and village meeting places keep them in constant use, and players tilt the rods to shoot a small ball into goals counted on rounded discs.
Many of these tables feature painted players wearing local team kits.
From metal workshop to design brand
RS Barcelona began in 1975 in a small workshop on the edge of the city. The firm cut and folded aluminium sheet for other companies. Brothers Rafael and Sergio Rodríguez later took over from their father.
Rafael trained as a mechanic. Clients often arrived with rough sketches and expected the workshop to work out the rest. He taught himself industrial aluminium design through those commissions, and the firm gradually moved into making its own products.
Fernando Amat, owner of the Barcelona design shop Vinçon before it closed, showed the RS2 aluminium football table in his shop window. The company’s range later grew to include ping-pong and pool tables. In 2011, it launched Ella, a table with female players.
Sales picked up as co-working spaces and tech offices promoted downtime and team bonding. Customised RS game tables appeared at major digital campuses, including those of Google and eBay.
Playful furniture with a sense of theatre also runs through Spanish design, and Pierre Sala’s Pierre Sala’s Theatrical Zigzag Piranha Chairs show how a designer can make everyday pieces feel like performances.
A collaboration with Jaime Hayon
The company now operates from a much larger site in the Catalan countryside. Its own staff handle cutting, moulding, assembly and powder coating, so nearly all production stays in-house.
In 2022, Rafael contacted the Spanish designer Jaime Hayon about a joint project. He had long admired Hayon’s work and believed a table designed by him would stand out. Rafael says Hayon needed some persuading, though Hayon’s team did not.
In 2024, Rafael brought one of the company’s aluminium football tables to Hayon’s studio in Valencia. According to Rafael, the team began sketching ideas almost immediately.
The result, RS Capsule, is the table Hayon describes as the Ferrari of football tables. He liked the idea of his own sculptures playing football. He also wanted a piece elegant and luxurious enough to stand as sculpture in a living room, yet ready for a match at any time.
Engineering the curve of an aluminium football table
The curved body of the aluminium football table was the hardest part to build in sheet aluminium. The development process resembled car design, with repeated testing and refinement before production.
Engineers at the factory built each component through a cycle of prototype, trial, revision and final run. The rule applied to the sturdy column legs and to the internal mechanisms alike.
Aluminium is the main material, but the curves required several forming methods. Those methods left an uneven surface, so the team repolished each piece before powder coating. The finish is warm, woody beige, with anodised chrome rods and detailing. A glossy, all-over anodised aluminium version is in development.
Players with personality
Football tables, also called foosball tables, use one of two player designs: two separate legs, or legs fused into a single peg. RS Capsule uses a cast aluminium, two-legged figure 13.5 centimetres tall.
The figure is Hayon’s signature Chicken, a character that has appeared across his ceramics, paintings and large-format sculptures. Hayon tested other ideas before settling on it. “I was very attracted to this strange little chicken! I love the shoes,” he says.
Hayon describes the shoes as slightly raised, almost Japanese in feel, paired with a humanised bird standing on the pitch. He played table football as a child in Madrid, and the project brought those memories back. He also found the game more technical than he expected. The ball needs the correct weight, the panels must rebound in a precise way, and the table must stay stable under energetic play.
Hayon believes the analogue game matters more than ever. “We spend so much time with screens,” he says, “and forget how good it is to simply be together.”
RS Barcelona has built its reputation on that idea. Each aluminium football table it makes turns a piece of furniture into a reason to gather, and RS Capsule takes that promise one step further by making the sculpture something people actually play.
H/T wallpaper.com
Frequently asked questions
When and where did RS Barcelona start operating?
RS Barcelona began in 1975 in a small workshop on the edge of the city. The firm initially cut and folded aluminium sheet for other companies.
What is the RS Capsule football table?
RS Capsule is a football table created by RS Barcelona with the Spanish designer Jaime Hayon. Hayon describes it as the Ferrari of football tables and designed it to stand as sculpture in a living room while still being ready for a match.
What kind of players does the RS Capsule table use?
RS Capsule uses a cast aluminium, two-legged figure 13.5 centimetres tall. The figure is Hayon’s signature Chicken, a character that has appeared across his ceramics, paintings and sculptures.
What finish does the RS Capsule football table have?
The RS Capsule has a warm, woody beige finish with anodised chrome rods and detailing. A glossy, all-over anodised aluminium version is still in development.
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