Plan Furniture 1932 1938: The German Connection

Abstract

Although it was short-lived and of uncertain commercial success, it can be claimed that Plan Ltd. was one of the more significant modernist experiments in the manufacture and retail of contemporary furniture and furnishings in Britain during the interwar years. It was largely reliant on German precedents and a rationalist design ethos which then prevailed as 'modern'. This embraced austere lines, devoid of extraneous decoration, constructed of materials and by methods which reflected the machine age. Hence tubular steel or plywood were favoured, and rectilinearly patterned fabrics in checks or stripes. The name of Plan is synonymous with its founder, Serge Chermayeff,1 who was one of a small group of indefatigable pro-moderns in the late 1920s and 1930s, commencing as an interior designer2 and subsequently practising as an architect.3 Indeed, its connection with Chermayeff is what makes Plan so intriguing. It also raises some important questions concerning the reasons why Chermayeff established Plan, how it relates to his earlier work for Waring and Gillow and when Plan furniture first appears in Chermayeff's interiors. The latter is particularly important because it reveals how it was that PEL chairs identical to Plan were seen in the BBC studios commission before Plan Ltd. was formed in December 1932. From where and under what circumstances was Plan furniture introduced? How