[AD] Design in detail: inside the world of USM Modular Furniture

[AD – This is a paid partnership with USM. Images of the USM factory: Cate St Hill]

On the blog my aim is to always champion simplicity through quality and design built to last. So I’m really excited to be working with Swiss furniture manufacturer USM this year.

Taking its name from founder Ulrich Schärer and the Swiss village of Münsingen where the family-owned company is still based, USM’s values centre around innovation, precision, quality and sustainability. For over 50 years, USM have been creating modular furniture designed to last a lifetime – functional pieces that can adapt to suit the user. Made of sheet-steel panels joined together with chromed tubes, the USM Haller system is wonderfully versatile. It can be configured into endless arrangements, from shelving units and storage cabinets to bedside tables and wardrobes. You’ve probably seen it everywhere from airports and offices to shop stores and homes.

It’s become a design classic. USM’s modular furniture is as relevant as fifty years ago because the refined aesthetic and pure simplicity means it still looks fresh and contemporary today, no matter the style of your home. That also comes down to it’s flexibility and the fact that it can evolve and grow with you – you can change the metal panels, reconfigure the arrangement, add components or even wheels and move it about if you need to. The design means that you can make it yours, using it to express your own unique style and display all the things that hold value for you. Customers become life-long fans, adding to their collection and taking it with them when they move. I love the idea of investing in a system that could then be used by your children.

USM’s modular furniture also defies trends. USM rarely adds new colours to it’s collection and at the great furniture fairs and design shows you won’t find them introducing a new design every year just for the sake of it like some brands. Instead, they’ve refined their processes with the finest materials and cutting-edge robotic machinery to be able to keep offering the same much-loved, dependable system.

It goes against our throwaway society, which people are questioning much more in recent years, especially when it comes to their homes and living more sustainably. We’re now more conscious of where a product comes from and how it’s made than in the quick fix, flat-pack era of the Nineties. Because if we keep replacing products – if they break, don’t last or no longer fit with our style – the worse it is for the environment. But creating design that lasts is as much about the materials and craftsmanship that go into it as the usability and purpose of the product. If you have a product that adapts to your needs and tastes, it’s more likely to endure beyond passing fashions that may come and go. USM’s modular furniture is the type of honest, unobtrusive object that becomes part of the backdrop for everyday life to take place in the home.

The other week I went to the USM factory just outside Bern in Switzerland to see how their modular furniture is made and get a behind the scenes glimpse of the design process. I think that getting to know a brand’s story helps you to appreciate the product and the work that goes into it all the more. It was fascinating to see the journey from raw sheet metal to end product, and all the little details the company has finessed over the years.

Although USM dates back to 1885, it was the grandson of the company’s founder, Paul Schärer, Jr, that put the brand on the map. USM started life out as a small metal-working firm, manufacturing window fittings, then ornamental hinges and machining sheet steel. Schärer, Jr sought to industrialise the company and steer it forward in the 1960s. Inspired by the work of Mies van der Rohe and the modern movement, he commissioned Swiss architect Fritz Haller to design a new flexible factory that could adapt to new manufacturing processes.

Opened in 1965, the USM factory is a low, modular, metal-framed building that stands in the countryside near Münsingen with mountainous views in the background. A smaller version of the factory called The Pavilion was used as an open-plan office for the company. It was when Schärer, Jr realised that they would need new furniture to suit this smart, minimal, Modernist space that USM’s modular system came about.

Schärer, Jr and Haller worked together to translate the principles of the building’s architecture into a system of chrome-plated steel tubes that could be joined together by ball connectors to display a series of powder-coated metal panels. The system was never meant to be sold commercially, but soon magazine articles about the new office were attracting interest, and USM Haller was christened and put into mass production. With no idea how to price his new venture, Schärer, Jr initially based the costs on the price-per-kilo model of the Volkswagen Beetle.

The factory has since extended and expanded three times to keep up with demand. There’s now a new powder plant hidden under the factory and car park, spanning an area the size of 14 tennis courts, with chambers, assembly lines and ovens.

I was pleased to hear that reducing energy emissions and refining the production methods are high priorities. USM has invested in millions of pounds of high precision machinery, such as laser cutters and high-tech robots, to help engineer super fine tolerances and guarantee quality. Raw materials are sourced locally. Any excess metal waste is recycled and around 27% of the core material that goes into the product is made from recycled metal.

So let’s take a look around this hive of activity. Although there was lots going on, there was definitely a feeling of calm and control.

All of USM’s furniture is made to order and assembled here in the factory, except the chroming and the balls that connect the chrome-plated steel tubes. These little balls are what makes the whole system possible – these innovative, 47 gram pieces of steel are threaded with six holes into which six screws can be inserted. They’re made on the same machines that make components for Swiss watches.

The balls allow the tube frames to be extended upwards and sideways into almost infinite combinations. You can make whole walls of USM furniture.

The steel comes into the factory as plain tubes for the frame and sheets or huge rolls for the panels. The tubes are cut, then mitred and chamfered at the ends.

Some will have slots made for lighting to create the USM Haller E system. This allows light elements and any unsightly cables to be hidden discreetly within the frame of the furniture. Or you can even have USB ports, which is handy for charging devices in a bedside table or living room sideboard!

The connector elements that secure the ball connector to the steel tubes are laser-cut and bent into small cylinders. They’re screwed onto the balls and then slotted into the tubes to join them together.

There are 14 different panel colours to choose from for the USM Haller system. White is the most popular, accounting for 50% of orders. Black and grey follow closely to no surprise!

The panels are evenly sprayed on four automatic paint conveyors in the powder coating plant under the factory. Hanging from a track, they move around the factory on these conveyor belts to dry. USM don’t use solvents or heavy metals such as lead so the operators of the machinery can work without gloves or masks, and it didn’t smell pungent like some factories I’ve been to.

Some 5,600 sq m of metal parts are coated every day in the factory, that’s a lot! These can then be stacked into storage boxes before being slotted into the metal frames with a satisfying click.

The parts then reach the assembly hall. The elements are fully assembled, or if much larger, partly pre-assembled into small transportable units to be shipped worldwide.

Before all this can happen, you need to create your individual piece of furniture by using USM’s online configurator. Through 3D modelling, it allows you to add modules, edit your design and choose from a range of different shapes and sizes. Or you can also simply go into USM’s showroom in Clerkenwell and they can go through the design with you.

That digital slip of information with the exact request for configuration will follow the piece throughout the whole production process, as seen below.

The old factory used by the company in the early 20th century has been transformed into a fine dining restaurant – the Kochwerkstatt Münsingen. Designed by Swiss practice atelier oï, the space is pared-back and minimal.

Floor-to-ceiling curtains create a sense of intimacy in the open-plan interior. USM Haller tables feature pressed Japanese cedar wood tops that match the chairs. Huge custom-made chandeliers decorate the space while a golden glass screen conceals the kitchen behind.

The four course menu varies daily, and focuses on dishes inspired by the seasons and the surrounding region of Switzerland.

So there we have the world of USM! I hope that’s given you an insight into the Swiss precision and craft that goes into this deceptively simple system.

The furniture looks quite basic and straightforward from first glance, but there’s a lot of technology, rigour, sophistication and skill that has gone on behind the scenes. Although there’s been a few evolutions, USM is essentially creating the same product as 50 years ago. And I think that says a lot about how this timeless product as endured.

I’d love to know, are you familiar with USM – do you have their system in your own home and what do you think?

Next, keep an eye out on the blog and see how I’ll be styling a piece of USM furniture in my home and making it my own!