LC20 Casier Standard

First presented in 1925 at the Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau in Paris, the Casier Standard storage units embody the essence of Le Corbusier’s design philosophy.

Designed and developed with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, these pieces marked a departure from traditional furniture concepts by introducing modular and customizable storage solutions. These elements, with their timeless and unique design, are capable of architecturally organizing spaces, creating functional partitions within rooms.

In the history of design, the Casier Standard plays an important role. Their 1925 debut heralded the birth of a new approach to furniture design.

As Italian design historian Renato de Fusco noted in his History of Design, “These units can be integrated into walls, placed against them, or used as dividers between spaces. While inspired by office furniture, in their domestic version, they can be used to store any type of object depending on the room. They replace a range of old furniture—wardrobes, dressers, sideboards, etc., those that the Master called les innombrables meubles affublés et aux variés—and, having a maximum of useful capacity inside, they leave the maximum free space in the environment.”

Tables, sofas, beds, and especially chairs can thus break free from the old idea of furniture, becoming autonomous objects, disconnected from their traditional conception.

Design objects can finally stand independently of one another stylistically, resulting in pieces with a variable, mobile, and independent character. Their aesthetic and functional autonomy is celebrated outside of their traditional role, leading to a new way of thinking about furniture—chairs, armchairs, or tables—as unique and pure functional elements.