At London’s Southbank Centre, architecture studio Jonathan Tuckey Design created an archival space featuring a mid-century shelving system that echoed the building’s heritage. When we looked closely, we realized it is made of slotted angle iron, an inexpensive structuring material available at many hardware stores. We first realized its potential for creating modular furniture when we bought a second-hand copy of High-Tech, The Industrial Style and Source Book for the Home, a late’70s trove of ideas for using industrial materials at home.
High-Tech outlined the basics of how slotted angle iron can come together like erector-set-like to make a TV stand on wheels and…
… this strangely cool canopy bed. To give you a rough idea of the price, Zoro tools sells a kit of five 12-foot lengths of slotted angle kit, with bolts and nuts for $115.
Tuckey Design used pegboard to create doors for closed shelving in the archival space, and to make the structure more wall-like…
It became a stand-alone room within a larger space…
Slotted angle offers lots of possibilities for rigging hanging element as well, like this drop-down surface.
The next time you see slotted angle iron in the hardware store or Home Depot, let your imagination soar.
Want something a little more finished?
Check out Meccano Home’s Erector Set inspired furniture you assemble yourself…
via Dezeen; photography of Southbank Center by Dirk Lindner.
