Sometimes, the way people actually use furniture can offer inspiration for how to develop the design further. This principle was put into practice with the Craft Modular by Città’s David Moreland and Nikolai Sorensen.

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Città launched the Craft cabinet range a few years back. It includes sideboards, buffets and cupboards, both made in oak and featuring distinctive uprights framing each end. They give the lightest of nods to mid-century buffets, but with clean, minimalist lines and honest use of materials. The uprights and frames are solid oak, which are paired with crown-cut oak doors. It’s a classic piece of furniture at home in a range of residential and commercial settings.

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Then, interior designers started customising the pieces, grouping multiple units together, even removing the legs and attaching the cabinets to walls. At one stage, the brand itself used Craft in a custom store fitout. The designers began to wonder if there was something worth exploring. “We started to think we could take the cabinet and make a modular design out of it,” says Moreland. “The success of the standalone range convinced us it was worth doing. We wanted to offer people something that would normally be a piece of bespoke cabinetry.”

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The process gathered pace when Sorenson visited the manufacturers last year in Vietnam. Now, Città has released Craft Modular. It’s subtly different from both the sideboard and the cabinet, with squarer proportions and a matching set of floating shelves, both based on a 1200mm module, and available in a choice of oak or smoked oak.

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You buy the base cabinet, which works as a standalone piece, then add as many extensions on as you like. The cabinet can sit on the ground on adjustable feet, or hang on the wall using a timber cleat, for an elegantly floating look.

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“It’s just a really nice extension to the collection,” says Moreland of the design. “We felt really good about it from early on.”

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Craft Modular by Città

cittadesign.com

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