Fritz Haller (born 23. October 1924 in Solothurn/Switzerland) is perhaps the best example of an architect who has successfully transferred their architectural competence into furniture design. Many architects have been successful, but few so successful as Fritz Haller. After qualifying as a draftsman Haller initially gathered experience through short engagements with numerous Swiss architects before travelling to Rotterdam to help work on post-war re-building projects. In 1949 Fritz Haller returned to Solothurn where he began working in his father Bruno's architecture firm. Defining in Haller's work - be it his architecture or his furniture - is his use of extendable and repeatable quadratic modular systems; a sort of building block system. Early Haller works such as the Kantonsschule, Baden from 1960 or the 1957 Weststadtschulhaus in Solothurn beautifully demonstrate the Haller approach to design. Fritz Haller's based his work on three systems; the "mini" for private houses and offices, "midi" for taller buildings and "max" for industrial complexes. All three systems are based on the same steel frame construction principle, just at varying scales. In 1963 at the bequest of Ulrich Schärer Münsingen (born a local producer of metal products, Fritz Haller extended his mini/midi/maxi system to furniture design, and in doing so created the now world famous System USM Haller. Based around a system of steel tubes, steel panels and, most importantly, a chromium plated brass ball, the USM Haller modular furniture is without question the design for which Fritz Haller is most famous for.
USM Haller A Fritz; A Ball; A System Within the diaries of Heidi, those central documents in the re-telling of the earliest (hi)story of the contemporary Switzerland, it is recorded that one of the oldest examples of vernacular Swiss furniture is the modular...
...In the early 1960s the Swiss Architect Fritz Haller developed the so-called MINI MIDI MAXI system, essentially a modular construction system based around standardised steel components and which allows for the construction of three scales of building: MINI for houses and similar small, two storey, objects; MIDI for schools/administrative buildings etc; and MAXI for larger single storey work such as factories, and a system which was marketed by Münsingen based metal fabricators USM as the "USM Stahlbausystem Haller"... And, therefore, and logically, was used by Fritz Haller to construct new factory and administrative facilities for USM...
...The USM Haller Dress Extending Fritz Haller's famous Mini/Midi/Maxi construction principle to Mini/Midi/Maxi/Mode, the USM Haller dress presents all the advantages of the modular construction system, in a stylish, functional dress...
...Before Fritz Haller achieved international recognition for the USM modular furniture system, he was... Born in Solothurn, Switzerland on October 23rd 1924, the young Fritz Haller trained as a draughtsman before gaining architectural experience in the offices of various Swiss architects...
...To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Fritz Haller and Paul Schärer's USM Haller modular furniture system USM instigated a series of masterclasses in which students at seven international design schools were paired with a mentor and asked to "Rethink the Modular" and for all to "consider the significance of modularity in architecture and design" and so "exploit the idea of modularity for contemporary design"... In addition to presenting some truly magnificent works from the likes of Volker Albus, Ettore Sottsass or Hans Hollein Relation also featured a more detailed exploration of Fritz Haller's oeuvre than you are likely to find outwith a dedicated Haller exhibition: and a showcase which delightfully elucidated how much more Fritz Haller is and was than his modular furniture system, makes as such perfectly clear what a travesty it is that he is largely only known for his modular furniture system and so by extrapolation underscores why Rethink the Modular is as much a tribute to Fritz Haller as a celebration of system USM Haller: modular is a way of thinking...
