USM Haller: The Complete Modular Furniture Guide

Published on: May 28, 2026 | Read time: 8 minutes

Author: Tom Allason

The USM modular furniture system defined how a piece of office storage could become a design classic. Designed in 1963 by the Swiss architect Fritz Haller for Paul Schaerer's USM AG, manufactured continuously since 1965 in Münsingen, Switzerland, it sits in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The geometry has not changed in sixty years because it did not need to. The originals, authenticated. Delivered in days, not the standard six- to ten-week wait.

About the author

Tom Allason is the founder and CEO of REHAUS, the circular designer furniture platform. He works directly with the REHAUS authentication, restoration and sourcing teams, and writes on iconic design, circular ownership, and the economics of designer furniture.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• USM is a Swiss manufacturer founded in 1885 by Ulrich Schaerer in Münsingen. The Haller system itself was designed by the architect Fritz Haller with Paul Schaerer in 1963 and has been in continuous production since 1965.
• USM Haller is a design classic, held in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, alongside the Eames Lounge Chair and the Saarinen Tulip table.
• The system is built on a chrome-plated steel ball-and-tube frame, with powder-coated metal panels in fourteen standard colours. Configurations are infinite with drawers, doors, drop-fronts and accessories tailored to the room.
• A new mid-size USM Haller sideboard costs roughly £1,800 to £2,800 from the showroom, with a six- to ten-week wait. The same authenticated piece at REHAUS arrives in 1 to 5 days, at a meaningful saving on retail.
• Every REHAUS piece is one of one, authenticated, and covered by the Forever Guarantee. Trade it back for what you paid, forever, or resell anytime.

Why USM Haller Matters

USM is older than the system that made it famous. The company was founded in 1885, when Ulrich Schaerer opened a small metalwork factory in Münsingen, a town outside Bern. For its first eighty years, USM made hardware. Locks, hinges, sheet-metal components.

The story changes in the early 1960s, when Ulrich's grandson, Paul Schaerer, took over the family business and decided the company needed a new headquarters. Schaerer commissioned the Swiss architect Fritz Haller to design the building. 

The brief expanded. Schaerer asked Haller to design furniture for the new offices, too, Modular, demountable, made of metal. A system that could adapt as the staff, the rooms, and the changing requirements of the business shifted year on year.

The result was the USM Haller modular furniture system. It went into series production in 1965 and has been manufactured in the same Münsingen factory ever since. The chrome-plated ball-and-tube connector at the heart of every piece is the same connector USM uses today. It is, in the literal sense, the system's DNA. It’s the geometric form that defines the function, and the function that defines the form.

In 2001, MoMA accepted USM Haller into its permanent design collection. That recognition is reserved for the small set of objects that defined modern industrial design in the twentieth century. The Eames Lounge Chair is in there. So is the Saarinen Tulip table. So is the USM Haller shelving system.

The system's longevity is the sustainability argument made physical. A piece bought in 1985 is mechanically compatible with a panel manufactured in 2026. The frame does not retire. The panels can be repainted, the configurations rebuilt, the form adapted across a generation of life in different rooms. Adaptability and flexibility are not features added to the system. They are the system.

Sixty years on, the cultural conversation around USM is still active. At Milan Design Week 2026, Snøhetta built a pavilion using reused Haller elements from a New York office; Wallpaper covered the installation as one of the standout brand presences of the week. Dezeen ran the Kasing Lung × USM collaboration, in which Labubu illustrations appeared on Haller cabinets. The system that was designed to outlast the offices it furnished is still being reinterpreted by the people designing the next generation of them.

The Pieces That Defined the System

The USM Haller catalogue is, by definition, infinite. Five forms account for the majority of what people actually buy.

USM Haller Sideboard (Fritz Haller and Paul Schaerer, designed 1963)

The sideboard is the configuration that defines the system. Two-door, four-door, with or without drop-down compartments. Drawers are an option, glass panels are an option, an open back is an option. Heights and depths are tailored to the room. The chrome ball-and-tube frame is visible at every connector; the geometric signature USM has not retired in six decades.

In the new catalogue, a mid-size USM Haller sideboard costs around £1,800 to £2,800 with a six- to ten-week production wait. The USM Dresser at REHAUS is the same authenticated piece, delivered in days.

USM Haller Credenza

The credenza is the configuration that has carried USM Haller into the contemporary home. Long, low, two or three sections wide. Most often used as a media unit beneath a wall-mounted television, as a hallway storage piece, or as a behind-the-sofa room divider in open-plan living rooms.

The colour decision is where the credenza acquires personality. USM offers fourteen standard powder-coat options. Light Grey, Graphite Black, and Pure White are the perennials. Pure Orange and Gentian Blue are the rising colours of 2026. Olive Green is the most-discussed restock of the year. Original 1980s and 1990s pieces in colours that USM no longer manufactures (burnt orange, mustard, cream) appear at REHAUS from time to time and are usually one of one. When gone, gone, with no manufactured urgency about it.

A new mid-size credenza configuration costs in the region of £1,900 to £2,800 from the showroom. The USM Balchandani Console by Fritz Haller and Paul Schaerer is the worked example at REHAUS. The chrome frame, two storage drawers, and the original USM panels, authenticated and ready to live with.

USM Haller Shelving System

The open-shelving configuration is the one MoMA holds. The frame stays the same. The panels come out. What you have left is the visible architecture of the system. Chrome tubes, ball connectors, and whatever you choose to put on the shelves. Modular shelving has rarely been more honest about its construction.

Shelving configurations work as room dividers, as library walls, and as gallery-style displays in larger rooms. Heights run from a single horizontal tier up to ceiling-height verticals. Every shelf and every panel can be added, removed, or moved later as your storage needs change.

USM Haller Desk

The original brief was office furniture, and the desk is still the cleanest workspace USM makes. Single-pedestal, double-pedestal, or freestanding with cable management built into the frame. The same precision and quality that made the system right for a Münsingen accountant in 1968 make it right for a London home office in 2026.

USM Haller E (the lit version)

The 2020s update. USM Haller E integrates LED lighting and USB power directly into the frame, dimmable, energy-efficient, and wireless. The retrofittable version means an older Haller piece can be brought into the lit catalogue without replacing the frame. Continuity, in other words. The same system that worked sixty years ago, updated for the rooms people are actually living in now.

The Designers Behind the System

Fritz Haller (1924–2012): Swiss architect and theorist of modular building. Haller's life's work was modular systems for industry, including the Mini, Midi, and Maxi modular building systems for industrial architecture. The USM Haller system applied the same logic at the scale of the room. Haller's claim to design history rests on more than the furniture: the entire intellectual project was about how form follows function when both are properly defined.

Paul Schaerer: engineer and USM owner-operator at the time, the man who briefed Haller and got the system into production. Schaerer is the patron of design history. The system bears Haller's name because Haller designed it; the system exists because Schaerer commissioned it.

Ulrich Schaerer: Paul's grandfather and the original 1885 founder of USM. The metalwork heritage is what gave the Münsingen factory the manufacturing capability the Haller system relied on. The chrome-plating, the steel-tube fabrication, and the precision joints were all already in the building when Haller arrived to design furniture around it.

Buying USM Haller Through REHAUS

A new mid-size USM Haller sideboard from the showroom costs in the region of £1,800 to £2,800, with a typical six- to ten-week production wait. Larger configurations, full shelving walls, and credenzas in non-standard colours run higher and wait longer.

Pre-owned through REHAUS is the better way to own USM, full stop. Buy from the showroom, and you accept the depreciation curve from day one. Buy through REHAUS, and you own the same authenticated piece, in original USM colours, with no value lost the moment it crosses the threshold.

Every USM Haller piece on the REHAUS website is fully authenticated. We verify the chrome-plated frame integrity, the ball connectors, the panel powder-coat condition, the original USM stamp on the metal connectors, and the structural alignment of the frame against USM's production specifications. Original pieces are designed to be reconfigured indefinitely, so a 1980s frame and a 2026 panel are physically compatible, but the verification still matters, because the pieces being authenticated need to be originals, not copies.

The Forever Guarantee covers the trade. Trade your piece back for 100% of what you paid, forever, or resell anytime. After nine months of ownership, the piece is eligible for exchange against any other piece in the REHAUS collection. Whether you change rooms, change cities, or change your mind, the system that made USM famous (adaptability, modularity, the ability to keep adapting) is matched by the way you own the piece.

Delivery is one to five days, white-glove, complimentary on orders above £3,000. The 30-day home trial covers the rest, with free same-day returns. Across REHAUS pieces sold since 2022, sellers have seen an average resale appreciation of 18%, closer to a piece that holds its value than one that depreciates.

Browse the current USM collection at REHAUS for live inventory available now. The wider storage collection at REHAUS holds adjacent pieces from De Sede, Knoll, and the heritage Italian brands.

How USM Haller Compares to the Italian Modulars

USM Haller and the great Italian modulars are usually treated as separate categories. Steel and panel here, cushion and leather there. Office system there, living room sculpture here.

In the design history, they are the same project.

USM Haller (1963) and the B&B Italia Camaleonda by Mario Bellini (1970) were designed seven years apart. Both were modular systems where the user was given a kit of parts and the design author surrendered the right to dictate the final configuration. Both were accepted into MoMA. Both are still in production. The reader buying USM for the storage in a London or New York living room is, with very few exceptions, the same reader who would consider a Camaleonda for the seating.

For the seating equivalent of this same modular logic, read the REHAUS B&B Italia: The Complete Brand Guide. The current B&B Italia collection at REHAUS sits next door to the USM inventory.

Browse the originals. Authenticated USM Haller at REHAUS for live inventory and configurations available now.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is USM Haller, and what is it known for?

USM Haller is a Swiss modular furniture system, designed in 1963 by the architect Fritz Haller with Paul Schaerer for USM AG, and has been in continuous production since 1965 in Münsingen, Switzerland. 

It is built around a chrome-plated steel ball-and-tube frame with powder-coated metal panels, allowing infinite configurations of sideboards, credenzas, shelving, desks, and storage furniture. USM Haller is held in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

When was USM Haller founded, and who designed it?

USM AG itself was founded in 1885 by Ulrich Schaerer as a metalwork factory in Münsingen. The USM Haller system was designed eighty years later, in 1963, by the Swiss architect Fritz Haller, working with Paul Schaerer (Ulrich's grandson and then-owner of USM). 

Series production of the Haller system began in 1965 and has continued, in the same factory, in the same geometry, ever since.

Where is USM Haller furniture made?

USM Haller is manufactured in Münsingen, Switzerland, in the same factory that the Schaerer family founded in 1885. The chrome-plated frames, the powder-coated panels, the ball connectors, the drawers and doors. Every component is made in-house. 

USM has not outsourced manufacturing in the system's sixty-year history. The "manufactured in Switzerland" line is an operational reality, not a marketing claim.

Is USM Haller worth the price?

Yes. USM Haller holds value strongly on the secondary market because the system is designed for indefinite reconfiguration (a 1980s sideboard is mechanically compatible with a 2026 panel), and because the supply of authenticated originals is limited. As Grazia reported in 2025, USM customers who started buying in the 1970s still own the same pieces, reconfigured. 

New pieces from the showroom run £1,800 to £2,800 for a mid-size sideboard, with a six- to ten-week wait. Through REHAUS, an authenticated piece arrives in 1 to 5 days at a meaningful saving on retail. The Forever Guarantee covers the trade. Return the piece for 100% of what you paid, after nine months of ownership.

Where can I buy authentic USM Haller in the UK?

New USM Haller is sold through the USM London showroom and through authorised dealers, including Aram and Nest. The typical production lead time is six to ten weeks. 

Pre-owned authenticated USM Haller is available through REHAUS, where every piece is verified against USM's production specifications, delivered in 1 to 5 days, with a 30-day home trial and the Forever Guarantee. To visit the REHAUS team or contact us about a specific piece, the contact options are on the REHAUS contact page.

What does USM Haller stand for, and what does the name mean?

USM stands for Ulrich Schärer Münsingen, the founder's initials and the manufacturing town. Haller refers to Fritz Haller, the Swiss architect who designed the modular system in 1963. The full name names both the manufacturer and the designer. 

It is one of the few modern furniture systems where the design author and the manufacturer are credited equally in the product name.

Does USM Haller furniture hold its value?

USM Haller is one of the strongest performers in the secondary furniture market. Original pieces in discontinued colours regularly resell at or above original retail. Continuity of production, MoMA recognition, and the design's reconfigurability all contribute. 

Across REHAUS pieces sold since 2022, design-icon furniture has appreciated by an average of 18%. The opposite of how most furniture behaves.

Can USM Haller be reconfigured later?

Yes. The system is designed for it. Every piece is built around the same chrome ball-and-tube connector geometry USM has used since 1965, so a 1980s frame and a 2026 panel are physically compatible. 

You can add drawers, change doors, swap colours, extend the form, or rebuild the piece into a different configuration as your rooms and needs change.