USM Modular Furniture

About

USM Modular Furniture is a Swiss furniture manufacturer based in Münsingen, in the canton of Bern, that produces modular steel storage, table and panel systems for offices and homes, and traces its founding to 1885. The company trades as USM U. Schärer Söhne AG and was established by Ulrich Schärer as a metalworking and locksmith workshop; the abbreviation USM combines the founder's initials with the first letter of Münsingen. Through the first half of the twentieth century the business specialised in building hardware, adding espagnolette window fittings in 1920 and, in 1946, ornamental hinges for the construction trade alongside precision sheet-steel machining. The turn toward furniture came with the third generation: in 1961 Paul Schärer Jr. (1933–2011), a grandson of the founder and an engineer trained at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, joined the firm and commissioned the Swiss architect Fritz Haller (1924–2012) to design a new modular steel factory and office building in Münsingen. USM remains a family-owned company, now in its fourth generation; Alexander Schärer has led the business since 2000 and is listed as chairman of its board of directors. The registered office is at Thunstrasse 55 in Münsingen, and the group operates subsidiaries in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and China. Development of the furniture is closely tied to that building. Finding no interiors that matched the modular architecture, Schärer and Haller began in 1962 to design furniture on the same logic, and a patent covering the ball-joint connector was filed in 1965. The result reduces a piece of furniture to three parts: a chrome-plated ball drilled with six threaded holes, chrome-plated steel tubes that screw into it, and sheet-steel panels, powder-coated in a range of colours, that close the frame. Assembly needs little more than a screwdriver, and units can be dismantled, extended or reconfigured rather than replaced; the company states that decades-old pieces can be combined with current components, and that production remains in its Swiss home base. USM Haller and USM Kitos M carry Cradle to Cradle certification, while the USM Haller, USM Haller Table, USM Kitos and USM Privacy Panels lines hold UL Greenguard certification for low chemical emissions. USM's emission-reduction targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. The catalogue covers shelving and storage, sideboards and media units, desks and conference tables, room-dividing panels and integrated lighting. The company's principal product is the USM Haller system, credited to Fritz Haller with Paul Schärer Jr. and developed from 1962 onward. Series production began in 1969 after an order for roughly 600 workstations for a Rothschild bank building in Paris, and the system entered the architecture and design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the early 2000s. USM Kitos, which the company's own timeline dates to 1989, is a table and desk system with height adjustment and a choice of tops in laminate, linoleum, glass and wood veneer; it is offered today in Kitos M, Kitos E, Kitos Meeting and Kitos Classic versions. USM Haller E, added in 2017, carries 24-volt low-voltage current through the tubes and balls of the frame itself, so that dimmable LED elements in warm and cool white and USB ports can be fitted into the structure without visible cabling. Other lines include USM Privacy Panels and the USM Inos internal organisation system. The systems are specified for private offices, meeting and reception areas and open-plan workspaces, and are also used in domestic interiors, retail spaces, hospitality projects, libraries and aviation settings. Products are available through the brand's official website and its dealer network, supported by company showrooms and authorised sales partners in Europe, North America and Asia. USM Modular Furniture is a long-established Swiss manufacturer of modular steel furniture systems for office and residential interiors, based in the Münsingen town where the company began in 1885.