USM and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation

For more than 15 years, with obvious and natural links between them, USM is an important partner of the Mies van der Rohe Foundation.

Indeed, USM has its roots in architecture: Paul Schärer, design enthusiast and admirer of Mies van der Rohe, commissioned, in 1961, the Swiss architect Fritz Haller, to design a new flexible building that could accommodate the administration of the company and the production lines. It is this system that will give birth in 1965 to modular furniture USM Haller.

The Mies van der Rohe Foundation was founded in 1983 with the aim of reconstructing the German Pavilion of the 1929 Barcelona World Fair, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich.

In addition to this initial objective, the Mies van der Rohe Foundation's mission is to promote topics related to architecture and urban planning, but also of course the study of the works of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and representatives of the Modern Movement. In this context, she organizes conferences, exhibitions, workshops and competitions.

These activities include the organization, in partnership with the European Commission and USM sponsorship, of the Young Talent Architecture Award (YTAA) for young architects, and of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award, one of the most prestigious architectural awards in Europe.

Its 2019 ranking was entirely French by rewarding Lacaton & Vassal architects, Frédéric Druot Architecture and Christophe Hutin Architecture for 383 projects from 38 countries for their project to transform a group of 530 housing in the Grand Parc district of Bordeaux (Mies van der Rohe Award) and the BAST agency for its school extension project in Montbrun-Bocage (Emerging Architect Special Mention).

Beyond the participation of USM in the activities of the Foundation, this partnership manifests itself clearly through the layout of the different spaces, which show an overview of all the possible applications of the USM system: offices, reception, shop, meetings, etc ...

Learn more on the official website of the Mies van Der Rohe Foundation.

June 2019, the Pavilionworkplace project 

As a follow-up to USM's two-year-long reflection on the Homework project, which featured in the USM booths at Salone del Mobile 2018 and 2019, a competition called Pavilion workplace was launched this year in partnership with the Mies van der Rohe Foundation on the subject of the development of new workspaces, dedicated to European architects, designers and students.The files were evaluated on the architectural quality of their proposal, the relevance of the furniture's integration in the project and their innovative vision of the workspaces by a jury composed of architects and experts of the workspace layout. .The 3 winning projects, from Italy, Romania and Spain, can be discovered through a virtual tour space in the Mies van der Rohe pavilion, which is adorned for the occasion with an exceptional USM layout, designed especially for this event. 

Learn more about the Pavilionworkplace project.