Inside legendary furniture manufacturer USM and their new collaboration with Buchanan Studio

In 1961, the Swiss designer Fritz Haller was asked to design a factory for a window maker called USM based in the town of Münsingen, just south of Bern. A trained architect since the 1940s, Haller settled on a modular plan which was both adaptable and versatile, and could be adjusted to meet the needs of the company. His design was a success. Two years later Paul Schärer, the grandson of the company’s founder and an admirer of modernist titans Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, returned to Haller, asking him to design a new system of furniture to match the factory. Schärer and Haller collaborated on a creation which was revolutionary in its simplicity, incorporating similar modular chrome frames which could be swapped in and out at will, adaptable as a result to any size or shape of space. The USM Haller system was born.

A white lacquer USM sideboard at the front of a H&G shopping feature on freestanding storage.

Jan Baldwin

Since then, Haller’s designs have attained icon status – it’s a word that is overused in design but which we feel more than comfortable deploying here – and are instantly recognisable without sticking out. Haller became known for three different architectural systems, each based in modularity, called “MINI”, “MIDI” and “MAXI”, which were intended to suit everything from private housing and offices up to industrial buildings (Haller would also go on to build the Schärer family home). They used steel modules of different sizes to allow a building’s surface area to increase or decrease depending on requirements, and ensured that they were inexpensive and possible to easily dismantle, if need be.

His furniture followed the same format and, despite initially being intended for internal USM use only, the system was patented in 1965. It fit both formal and informal spaces and was also very chic; indeed, one of the first firms to take them up in 1969 was the Rothschild Bank in Paris. USM Haller furniture was also later favoured by the photographer Mario Testino, who had “a full black USM office”, according to a recent FT interview with Angus Buchanan of Buchanan Studio. Angus did work experience with Testino as a teenager, and told the newspaper “I just remember thinking it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen: it was just so slick.”

USM and Buchanan Studio’s new collaborative, modular collection (left) is based on USM’s famous Haller system

Alessandro Tear

It clearly made a lasting impression, because this month, Buchanan Studio has launched its debut collection in partnership with USM. Entitled “Tessellate” and billed as “a dynamic collection of eleven new designs” which are based on USM’s precision system, the collection includes a stool, bench, coffee table and much more. In a nutshell, the collaboration blends USM’s modular furniture framework with detailing typical of Buchanan Studio – namely its graphic checkerboard design, which is available in Ruby Red, Pure White and Graphite Black and applied to the furniture. A special colour, BS Pink, has also been created for the collection, giving the furniture a passing if charming resemblance to Battenberg cake, and one which will be instantly recognisable to design enthusiasts.