Salone del Mobile attracts throngs of architects, specifiers and consumers every year because the exhibitors at this famed Milan furniture fair consistently astonish with spectacular new product launches and reissues of classic designs. When all tallied, more than 300,000 people will have attended this year’s design juggernaut. And to welcome the larger-than-ever attendance, one exhibitor devised a new category of surprise: USM reinvented its iconic modular furniture system USM Haller by seamlessly integrating it with LED light.
The Swiss manufacturer did not take its charge, known as USM Haller E, lightly. The company’s head of product development Thomas Dienes says discussion about the system dates back seven years when he stepped into the role from another leadership position within the company. USM was not responding to a concrete request from salespeople, Dienes says. Rather, “LED and OLED technology had entered the marketplace, and we pursued how light integration could add more functionality to furniture. Yet it raised a lot of question marks.”
