USM Haller living essentials - modern storage space

Although it is probably fair to say that most people associate USM Haller furniture with offices, not all see it so.

Partly fuelled by a desire amongst customers for individual furniture that meets their specific requirements and partly by a rise in the number of people working from home, System USM Haller is increasingly starting to dominate domestic as well as commercial settings.

Kitchen units, multi-media cabinets, even baby changing tables - the flexibility of the USM Haller System is only limited by the customers imagination.

Our personal all-time favourite is a coat rack we saw once in Chemnitz. And as often repeated, its not that often we find things we like in Chemnitz.

The beauty of the USM Haller system for domestic users is not only the fact that units can be constructed to meet specific wishes; but that they can be rebuilt or extended when your requirements change.

USM Haller - also works well with traditional interiors

Today’s baby changing table, for example, being tomorrows toy storage facility.

And that the USM Haller system has remained unchanged for over 40 years, and will not change for the next 40 - tomorrows toy storage facility can easily become a bedside table, a bookcase or a TV unit before, perhaps, eventually returning to a baby changing table for the next generation.

All one needs is the imagination and a qualified USM Haller fitter.

And in order to help even more customers achieve their desires, USM Haller have launched three new standard colours intended to harmonise with both contemporary and classic interiors; orange, beige and brown.

The new USM Haller colours are now available for ordering, and a few examples of possible USM Haller domestic configurations can be found in the USM Haller spaces magazine.

And once you know what you want, the (smow) USM Haller design team will help you with the detailed planning.

Be if for the home or the office.

USM Haller living essentials - a truly individual kitchen

The first semi-final of the 2010 (smow) designer furniture World Cup pitted not only two generations against each other but two approaches to design: Fritz Haller the classically trained Swiss linealist and Tom Dixon the warehouse party welder turned doyen of contemporary English design.

As ever Fritz Haller began with his universally acclaimed System USM Haller formation. The international success of Haller’s USM Haller system is largely due to its deceptive flexibility: It looks rigid and firm, but in reality can be quickly altered to meet any demands.

Tom Dixon is however too long in the tooth to be easily taken in by Fritz Haller’s approach, and it was the improbable former Habitat chief designer who made the first serious move with an excellently worked Spin candelabra. Although thrown by the unusual combination of weight and mobility Fritz Haller is a master with metal and he was able to counter with a delightful hanging file / extension door combination.

Switching tactics Dixon produced an ingenious wooden Offcut stool; an article which again seemed to have Haller beaten, the old master however recovering in the last minute to clear with a glass table top.

In the second half England brought on Jasper Morrison in the hope that the change in style would upset Fritz Haller - it didn’t and late in the second half Fritz Haller demonstrated once again why his USM Haller system is so good when he effortlessly converted a lowboard L into a sideboard M for a hard fought victory.

(smow)2010 Overview

Knowing that they needed to defeat Fritz Haller’s stable and flexible USM Haller system in order to advance the Italians choose to stick with Antonio Citterio for this all or nothing encounter.

Setting quickly to work Antonio Citterio rolled out a succession of office chairs; including the Oson CE, Axess and T-chair for Vitra. However regardless of what Antonio Citterio tried, Fritz Haller always found a combination to match and ultimately took a 1:0 lead with a beautifully finished Haller Table.

Undeterred Citterio kept producing the office chairs and was eventually rewarded when his Vitra Skape sneaked in to make the final score 1:1

It was, however, very much a case of “too little too late” and so Switzerland and Fritz Haller advanced to the semi-finals.

The Group A table and all Group A results can be found here.

One of the high points of Verner Panton’s career came in Switzerland when in Vitra he finally found a producer for his Panton Chair. Today however there was no room for sentiment and Panton came out fighting.

Picking up where he left off against Joe Colombo Verner Panton attempted a quick plastic combination, his Barboy however going just wide. Fritz Haller remained as composed and sturdy as ever, the flexibility of his classic USM Haller system allowing him to respond to whatever move Verner Panton designed.

Late in the second half, with this Swiss Danish designer furniture contest apparently heading for a draw, Verner Panton resorted to a completely unnecessary Phantom and was rightly shown the red card.

Fritz Haller introduced a quick CD inlay tray and the match was decided.

The Group A table and all Group A results can be found here.

Verner Panton receives a well deserved red card

Although this encounter was never going to be as extravagant as the opening  match, Fritz Haller and Maarten Van Severen fought a tense, minimalist battle in Durban.

Fritz Haller’s style has changed little since he broke onto the international design scene in the 1960s and his trademark mini, midi, maxi  approach ensured a typically solid Fritz Haller performance. Maarten Van Severen’s occasional forays were always very well considered  and perfectly executed; yet, despite .03 or .04 excellent attempts for Vitra Maarten Van Severen was unable to break Fritz Haller’s solid defence and the match ended 0:0

The Group A table and all Group A results can be found here.

For people who spend most of their working lives sat at desks, publishers and authors have a frightening disregard for comfort when it comes to chairs.

Or at least they do if the furniture we saw at the 2010 Leipzig Buchmesse was a measure of the industry norm.

Cheap folding chairs, cheap copies of designer furniture classics being presented as originals and general cheap tat as far as the eye could see.

Fortunately one or two of the exhibitors seemed better informed. Below a few snapshots of some of the happier moments of the 2010 Leipzig Buchmesse from a designer furniture perspective:

French/German culture channel ARTE with Swan Chairs by Arne Jacobsen from Fritz Hansen

French/German culture channel ARTE with Swan Chairs by Arne Jacobsen from Fritz Hansen

German news channel Phoneix with Tom Vacs by Ron Arad for Vitra

German news channel Phoneix with Tom Vacs by Ron Arad for Vitra

MDR with LEM by Shin and Tomoko Azumi for lapalma

MDR with LEM by Shin and Tomoko Azumi for lapalma

Reclam Verlag with a USM Haller reception desk.

Reclam Verlag with USM Haller

Reclam Verlag with a USM Haller reception desk

Fachhochschule Potsdam with a tribute to fellow Brandenburger Egon Eiermann. Eiermann table frames from Richard Lampert and SE 68 chairs from Wilde + Spieth.

Fachhochschule Potsdam with a tribute to fellow Brandenburger Egon Eiermann

SE 68 chairs from Wilde + Spieth

And perhaps most impressive of all the students of Bauhaus University Weimar who had, in our eyes, a stand as dedicated to Block by Frank Gehry from Vitra.

Block by Frank Gehry from Vitra

Bauhaus University Weimar

We can only the hope the situation improves for the Leipzig Buchmesse 2011.

But please, with better quality furniture

In the past we have often talked about airports, airport design and airport furniture.

And not just because we want to demonstrate how much we travel and how often we are in airports.

But because we find it just as important that high-quality furniture is available in public spaces as in the home or office.

If you think your office furniture is well used - imagine the stress your average airport chair is put under.

From March 23rd until March 25th Europe’s largest airport terminal conference and exhibition will take place at Brussels Airport.

Airline airport seating by Sir Norman Foster for Vitra in Toulouse Blagnac airport

At Passanger Terminal EXPO senior airport planners, managers and designers will discuss in a series of conferences how to improve airports and the airport experience, while in the exhibition area over 150 producers will present their products- as the organisers put it- “from baggage handling and security to passenger check-in and seating solutions”

And, needless to say (smow) has all four areas covered.

Vitra provide a range of elegant public seating solutions from Eames plastic chairs, over designs from Maarten van Severen and on to the dedicated “Airline” range by Sir Norman Foster.

While for all desks and shop solutions - be it check in desks, security or display cabinets - the majestically flexible system USM Haller meets every challenge; and can also be integrated with baggage conveyor belts

And for baggage handling… there’s always the M 4 R from Tecta

More information on USM Haller airport solutions from (smow) can be found at http://airport.smow.com/ and you can read our reports from the 2010 Passenger Terminal EXPO here in the (smow)blog.

Passenger Terminal EXPO 201 with smow and USM Haller

Weil am Rhein Rathaus

When we were still young, fit and healthy, towns and cities existed.

Just existed.

These days in order to exist a city needs to be the city of something.
And so  as one drives along a German motorway, every ten metres or so comes a large brown sign announcing the next conurbation as “Chemnitz - City of the Modernity”, “Pied Piper City Hameln” or “Prien am Chiemsee - City of the criminally lazy taxi drivers”.

Not wanting to be the outsider in this age of claims making, Weil am Rhein has decided to call itself “Weil am Rhein - City of Chairs”

And what could be more appropriate for a city that uses an image of the Vitra Design Museum to illustrate the “Economy and Tourism” section of their homepage and which welcomes 100,000 tourists a year to the Vitra Campus in the Charles Eames Strasse.

And it’s certainly a lot catchier than “Weil am Rhein - City of the huge goods train station”

There’s just two things that bother us.

Trifling, small,  things, but you know us….

Apple Honey by Shiro Kuramata in Weil am Rhein

In front of the modernistic and inspirational “Rheincenter” stands a huge statue of a chair.

A chair that isn’t, wasn’t and never will be produced by Vitra. Rather by Dutch producer USM Pastoe.(Obviously not to confused with Swiss producer USM Haller)

Apple Honey by Shiro Kuramata is a wonderful chair.

Shiro Kuramata did partake in the very first Vitra Editions, alongside the likes of Frank Gehry and Ron Arad.

Vitra even produced Shiro Kuramata’s equally delightful “How High The Moon” chair.

But not Apple Honey.

Much more confusing is the image painted onto the side of one of the four tower blocks that “tower” over the Vitra Campus and the new VitraHaus.

Next to the text “City of Chairs” is a picture of a chair.

A most curious, three leggeed, chair.

Weil am Rhein City of chairs ... but which chairs

Our initial reaction was that it was a DCM by Charles and Ray Eames. And very fitting we found that too given the close ties between the the Eames’, Vitra and Weil am Rhein.

Except the DCM is of course a four legged chair.

And try as we might we simply cannot think of a single three legged chair that Vitra produce.

Our next guess was that it was an “Ant Chair” by Arne Jacobsen…also an excellent representative of 20th century chair design. But in the Ant Chair the seat and the back are formed from one piece of wood. And the single leg is at the front.

Then we really thought we had it: SE 69 by Egon Eiermann. But no the SE 69 also has the single leg at the front.

Egon Eiermann’s SE 42 does have the single leg at the back, but is made of wood.

Indeed the longer we stood in the middle of Römerstrasse, holding up the traffic and irritating the good folks of Weil am Rhein, the more we struggled to think of a three-legged chair which has a steel tube single back leg.

Principally on account of the instability factor.

Only once we were back in Leipzig could we track it down, thanks to the MoMA New York archive.

Charles Eames Three legged side chair from 1944 (photo via http://www.moma.org/)

Three-Legged Side Chair by Charles Eames for the Evans Products Co from 1944.

A chair which may or not have been taken on by Hermann Miller when they acquired the Eames rights from Evans in 1946. And so which may or may not be part of those Charles and Ray Eames products to which Vitra the European production rights posses.

Which is a long way of saying, Weil am Rhein appears to celebrate it’s “City of Chairs” status with two chairs which have nothing to do with it’s status as one of the most important centres of contemporary European designer furniture production.

Visitors to the new VitraHaus can ponder this paradox from the fourth floor window.

Or simply enjoy the wonderful view over the Vitra Design Museum and the orchard meadow.

System USM Haller forms an important part of the airport design at Leipzig Halle airport

Despite the many disadvantages, problems and general chaos budget airlines have brought into our previously well structured and ordered lives, they have brought one clear advantage: The opportunity to visit really remote airports.

More through necessity than freewill, thousands of air travellers now find themselves avoiding the likes of Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle or Frankfurt am Main Airport, and instead experiencing the delights of Klagenfurt, Tampere or Altenburg.

At least in all modern airports the quality of the airline design and for all the airport furniture is guaranteed.

At Leipzig Altenburg, for example, those passengers wanting a last cigarette before boarding their flight can enjoy it in the comfort of an original Herman Miller fibre glass Eames Armchair. Or while reporting your luggage as having been left in Milan is never an enjoyable experience; at Leipzig Halle Airport you can at least admire the aesthetic and practical beauty of the System USM Haller elements while you wait. And then again at the hire car desks; where the USM Haller elements are cleverly colour matched to the corporate design of the car hire companies.

Hall D at Toulouse Airport

One of the real winners in the era of budget airlines however has been Toulouse Blagnac Airport. Construction of the airport started in 1939; while on the one hand not the best year to start a major construction project in Europe, it did at least provide the occupying Germans with a base for the production of V1 and V2 rockets as well as a dive-bombing school.

Following the liberation of France civil operations began again at Toulouse Blagnac. In 1953 27,000 passengers passed through the airport. By 1990 this had risen to 3 million passengers a number which then exploded to 5 million in 1999 and six million passengers a year in 2007.

A fact no doubt helped by the fact that the airport is much beloved by budget airlines.

This growth in passengers has of course necessitated a need for ever new buildings, and Toulouse Blagnac Airport is currently in the middle of a large expansion programme. An important cornerstone of this expansion is the new Hall D, a facility which will allow the airport to process some 8,5 million passengers a year.

Airline airport seating by Sir Norman Foster for Vitra in Toulouse Blagnac airport

A, dare we say, typical and somewhat passe all glass facade means that passengers at Toulouse Blagnac Airport could have the feeling of being at any airport in Europe; could - were it not for the wonderful utilisation of Sir Norman Fosters Airline seating system from Vitra.

Created in 1998, the Airline system is used in many airports throughout Europe, but always in black.

In Toulouse however the architects have opted for a range of colours; the resulting 1970s bus station effect is both more playful and relaxing than the norm.

In addition the Foster Airline seating has been wonderfully complemented with a range of .04s by Maarten van Severen on traverses, again from Vitra.

For those of you wanting to wanting to experience the Toulouse Blagnac Airport design yourselves; fights to Toulouse can be found starting form all minor European airports. And Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle or Frankfurt am Main.

And for those of you looking for Vitra, USM Haller or indeed any designer furniture for your airport, hospital, hotel or bus station the (smow) contracts team can offer professional and competent advice.

Airline seating as part of airport design

USM Haller delivery: Eames elephants are helpful but not necessary

In the wake of our “warehouse” post we have received numerous emails along a similar vein:

“It’s OK for yous and your highly trained Eames Elephants; but how do we get our USM Haller furniture into our flat?”

The simple answer - assuming you live in Germany - is “PREMIUM delivery”

Under normal conditions the Schenker delivery crews are only allowed to deliver to the door of your building.

It’s a legal thing.

With “PREMIUM delivery”, however, for a small additional fee not only will the furniture be brought into the room where it is required; but the carrier will also take away the packing for environmentally correct disposal.

Premium delivery from smow: Ideal for USM Haller

Although “PREMIUM delivery” is particularly intended for USM Haller deliveries, it can however be booked for all smow orders.
And while we can well imagine it maybe worthwhile for an Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman from Vitra that need to be carried up to a fourth floor flat; for a moooi Rabbitt Lamp it would be a bit exaggerated.

Currently “PREMIUM delivery” is only available for deliveries within Germany.
For deliveries outwith (smow) cannot make any guarantees that a similar service is available; but our experienced logistics team will use all their experience and contacts to make sure the delivery meets your requirements and the local conditions.

And in very rare cases the (smow)blog team will deliver the order personally; but only if the weather forecast is agreeable and you can assure us that you can bake like a Greek God/Goddess.
Full details on how (smow) deliver orders can be found on the furniture delivery page.