Wall unit

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A wall unit

A wall unit (or add-on series , wall unit ( Austrian and Swiss-German), not to be confused with a wall cupboard ) is a large, multi-part cupboard that either consists of individual , screwed- together elements or, in what is known as an endless construction, consists of individual sides and floors.

species

Nowadays, wall units are mainly manufactured in industrial series construction. The advantage of the endless construction is the great flexibility, which allows the wall unit to be precisely adapted to the room. As built-in cupboards , they are also made to measure by carpenters. They can be designed as front wall or room divider elements. Room divider cabinet walls have a visible rear wall. If they are installed, they can be connected to the left and right of the house walls as well as up to the ceiling with the help of panels.

Construction

The items are made of veneered or coated chipboard or, laminated core plywood manufactured. Highly stressed cabinet walls in offices often have metal fittings (skeleton construction) on all sides and construction shelves at the front and rear, which serve to connect the individual sides and construction shelves as well as to accommodate fittings (door hinges, shelf supports, fixtures, door locks).

In so-called system cabinet walls, not only shelves, but also many other built-in elements can be built in, for example pull-out frames for hanging files, form inserts, cloakrooms, safes, refrigerators, kitchen compartments, passage doors. Requirements for increased noise protection can also be taken into account.

The individual cabinet elements can be locked with wing or sliding doors. Open cabinets without doors, but then with a niche lining, are also possible. Room dividers can be combined with partition walls. In this way, empty floors, especially in office buildings, can be equipped with flexible rooms that can be converted at any time.

history

The Viennese architect Franz Schuster designed a wall unit program for the Erwin Behr furniture factory in Württemberg as early as 1921. In 1955 Johan Bus designed the BMZ wall unit system for Behr. BMZ means Behr Möbel Dismantling . This system was sold until the 1980s.

In the sixties, the number of manufacturers of wall unit systems increased with Interlübke with the SL system , which is still produced today, and Hülsta with the Allwand system . In addition to wall units in contemporary design, models in classic or rustic shapes were and are also offered. In the GDR , wall units were produced, the dimensions of which were matched to the standardized living spaces of the prefabricated buildings common there. One of these wall units is the Deutsche Werkstätten furniture program .

In Germany in particular, the wall unit was and is popular as a piece of furniture in the home, but also in the office. In 1997 over 4 million wall units were sold. The advantage of the wall unit is that it offers a lot of storage space on a small footprint. Due to the different design of the individual compartments of the wall unit, the furniture can accommodate all the objects that are usually found in a living room: Open shelves for books, closed doors for storing everyday objects, glazed doors for decorative objects that should be visible, compartments designed as a home bar and drinks as well as special compartments for televisions or stereo systems , often with integrated power supply or openings for easier routing of the associated cables. Since the wall unit often covers an entire wall of a room, mold can form on outside walls, especially in old buildings, so it is advisable to set up the wall unit a few centimeters away from the wall to allow air to circulate.

For modern living room furnishings, however, a classic wall unit seems too massive for many people today and is sometimes smiled at as a bit narrow-minded. The room-high, wide and massive wall units are therefore more likely to be found in offices today. In private rooms, a modern variant of the cupboard or living room wall is preferred, which is characterized by a flexible combination of individual cupboards, shelves and showcases , the height of the individual elements often varies, the back walls of open parts are designed in different colors or left out, etc .; in this way the wall unit appears airier.

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.techniklexikon.net/d/skelettbauweise/skelettbauweise.htm
  2. A report about the Erwin Behr furniture factory in Wendlingen and the Behr-Möbel-GmbH with their furniture stores in Stuttgart, Ulm, Ravensburg, Wendlingen an der Autobahn and Interior Behr + Döhler, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf
  3. Archived copy ( Memento from November 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive )