Support-channel furniture, 1941
Originally designed as shelving units, the wall system developed in 1941 for hanging metal and wood storage units quickly underwent changes enabling its use in offices and collective and domestic spaces. These shelf-channel items were attached to walls or held between floor and ceiling by spring actuators similar to those used on the movable partitions patented in the 1930s. The system used spot welded bent pressed steel posts as shelf channels, with slotted-in bent steel brackets for holding shelves and suspended cabinets of different sizes. The cabinets had sliding doors of wood, glass, Plexiglas, stainless steel or aluminum, with wooden handles that also functioned as stiffeners. Several different combinations were possible: with baskets, drawers and revolving files, and even with large brackets able to support banquettes or worktables. These items were particularly well suited to workspaces, but also fit well into the domestic environment because they allowed for variations in materials and flexibility of use: the frame was movable, the fittings were interchangeable and the combinations could be modified. At the time these features were sufficiently novel to be high-lighted in the specialist press. In 1946, the principle of hanging storage units made in small quantities was adapted for space distribution inside mass-produced housing—the Métropole houses of the future—so that the latter could be delivered with internal divisions that could be used, moved and modified according to need.1 These balanced furnishings, which could be installed instantly, with no embedding or screwing, combined the single or double bracket shelf channel with mass produced or specially made metal and wood components— basically worktops and cabinets. Examples of the latter were the vitrines for the French stand at the 9th Milan Triennial in 1951 (architect Henri Prouvé) and, in the same year, the screen partitions with shelving for the Air France Congo building in Brazzaville (interior designer Charlotte Perriand). Many variations on the hanging, balanced furnishings appeared until 1954, when they were replaced by the “blocks” bookshelves.
1. “No partitions, just large pieces of furniture made of metal and wood, like our cabinets, and going from floor to ceiling.” Jean Prouvé had come up with a similar system in 1946: “Metal niches, with the top and bottom made of wood and the whole thing held together with tie rods.” (letter and sketch by Jean Prouvé to Henri Prouvé, June 1946, archives of the Henri Prouvé agency, ADMM.)