Forever Relevant

Planned obsolescence is anathema to Dieter Rams and Vitsœ, the company that makes his classic furniture at its low-energy headquarters in central England.

- Michael Moore-Jones

Open your iPhone calculator and you’re looking at a version of the calculator that German designers Dieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs developed for Braun in 1980. It’s a modern classic: held in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The functional, clear and even beautiful design is so difficult to improve on that Apple’s designers were leftsimply paying homage. What irony, then, that our iPhones will barely last three years while Braun’s calculators are still going strong almost 40 years later. Apple’s designers borrowed Rams’ aesthetic, but not his ethic.

At least one company is still committed to both. Vitsœ (pronounced vit-soo) is a somewhat paradoxical company. Founded in Germany by Niels Vitsœ, a Dane, its key product – one of only three that it makes – is a flexible shelving system so understated that it exists merely to highlight the objects placed on it. Vitsœ is a company that doesn’t mind being invisible, like its shelves; but then again, you’ve probably seen these shelves many times without recognising them. Called the ‘606 Universal Shelving System’, they’re the ones that house your architect-friend’s books and ceramics, and which adorn the walls of so many Instagrammable mid-century houses.

Every part is interchangeable, so it’s a shelf as ‘system’. You buy vertical brackets that attach directly to the wall. Between these, you fit thin metal shelves or cabinetry. You can start with a small shelving unit and add to it as required; you can replace individual parts if they wear out; and you can pack them and take them with you when you move – all of this is Vitsœ’s sales pitch. Because of their flexibility, I’ve heard it said sardonically that Vitsœ’s shelves are the most divorce-friendly furniture in the world.