USM Haller is modular furniture built to be configured, extended and rarely questioned. CORDA, the Vienna studio founded by Anna Zimm, took the chrome-plated grid in a different direction, filling its frames with hand-braided rope and vivid colour.
Between discipline and play, a touch of whimsy keeps breaking through. The austere framework stays legible, while the braided surfaces soften its precision and add texture and lightness.
CORDA × USM – Highlights:
The grid, softened
USM Haller has been in production since 1965, a Swiss modular furniture system of chrome-plated steel tubes and ball connectors that turns storage, tables and partitions into a single, endlessly reconfigurable kit of parts. Its precision is the point: every joint is engineered and every module standard, a fixture of offices, galleries and homes whose logic has barely changed since launch — part of what makes it read as a classic.
CORDA‘s signature is the opposite gesture. The studio weaves thin polypropylene rope by hand in Vienna, into surfaces that introduce colour, texture and softness. The ropes, produced in Italy and the Netherlands, carry an OEKO-TEX certification, and the technique — already used on CORDA’s chairs and restoration work — turns any framed structure into a vibrant, one-off piece.
Eight pieces, one language
The collection spans eight pieces that keep USM Haller’s structural logic while adding CORDA’s chromatic language. Among them are a room-dividing screen, a bench and a mobile work table, each using the same chrome grid but a different role, proportion and palette. Together they cover storage, display, seating and partition, so one system serves different rooms and habits.
The colours are eclectic — gradients and pairings that steer the system away from its usual neutrality. The result is a deliberate tension between two design languages: a rigorous framework made softer, lighter and more playful.
From a festival pattern to a showroom
The project grew from a starting point outside the studio. The patterns that SIRENE Studio designed for the Vienna Design Week festival campaign — repetition, structure and variation — provided the visual cue for reinterpreting the modular principle.
The collection premiered during Vienna Design Week at the Behan & Thurm showroom, where the presentation Structures in Light was also on view. The pieces are available exclusively through Behan & Thurm in Vienna.
Editorial Team
Do you have a story to share? Feel free to reach us out and submit your design and inspiration, we are always looking for interesting design ideas!
