Oscar Stonorov and Willo von Moltke Organic Design Unit Cabinet

Custom and well-crafted modular sliding-door cabinet produced by Eric R.E. Schuster of the Art and Trade Shop of New York City in the early 1940s. Styl...

Unit furniture group with a California mid-century vibe, possibly a DIY project, comprising four boxes, all of Douglas fir plywood, sitting atop a plinth base, presented here in a sk...

Chair with tilting seat back in solid birch with a vintage seat cushion fabric. A winning entry by Ann Hatfield and Martin Craig in the seminal MoMA 1941...

Unit furniture of Philippine mahogany with white Masonite panels consisting of a module with sliding Masonite doors and a double wide module with an open front. Designed by Harvard-educated, Boston-area architect, designer, and urban planner Carl Koch as a corollary to his prefabricated Techbuilt houses and produced in 1955. Koch was a pioneering champion of prefabrication in housing in mid-century America, first with his much-publicized but ill-fated all-steel Lustron houses in the late 1930’s, then with his more successful wooden Tech-Built houses, introduced in 1953. In At Home with Tomorrow, his 1958 paean to prefabrication, he lays out his opposition to the traditional hammer-and-handsaw construction methods that remained dominant even with conceptually modernist structures. His designs generally hewed to a regional brand of modernism rather than orthodox international style, taking into account local topography and climate—his iconic form is an A-frame with a pitched roof, more sensible in New England winters than a flat roof (though there are such Techbuilt designs). The basic Techbuilt formula suggested that modular, industrial production methods of the components combined with knock-down shipping and on-site assembly equalled lower cost and less waste. Variety and individuality could be achieved in how the elements were combined. This underlying philosophy involving modularity, flexibility, and industrial production methods applied to Spacemaking furniture as well, although interestingly enough, the furniture design preceded the architectural application, as Koch (et al) had submitted a version to the 1947 MoMA Low-Cost Furniture Competition (and so these units also preceded the famous 1951 Eames Storage Unit, a conceptually similar idea executed with metal framing). The furniture line began with requests for freestanding wardrobe...