Gather Around

Revived by RH, Harvey Probber's modular seating innovates anew

- HANNAH MARTIN

When Harvey Probber began designing furniture in the late 1930s, at just 16 years old, a sofa tended to look a particular way, with two arms, a back, and a fixed configuration. But the Brooklyn-born designer questioned that convention.

Inspired by the rectilinear buildings of Catalan architect Josep Lluís Sert and abstract paintings by the likes of Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger, he began experimenting with modular seating systems that allowed for a range of layouts. "The key to salvation was in bits and pieces of plane geometry," Probber mused. "They were meaningless alone, but when fused to conventional shapes, profoundly altered their character."