Cadovius Royal System and similar designs

[D.M. Procida]

This is the Royal System:

It's a modular, wall-mounted shelving system in teak, first created in the late 1940s by Poul Cadovius.

The basic design, of uprights from which shelves are hung with brass supports is also used in other systems, which I think were based on the Royal System.

There's the Randers Møbelfabrik PS System, by Preben Sørensen: .

And Sven Ellekaer's design for Albert Hansen .

Any others from the same era?

I noticed that now even IKEA are doing their version: . It looks OK, but frankly bamboo doesn't can't match teak.

And a company is making the Royal System (sort of, they've messed it about a bit) again: .

Daniele

[Andy Bennet]

Apart from being mechanically unsound and looking naff - what are the advantages?

[D.M. Procida]

I find the design quite beautiful. I love teak, and that Danish modernist design.

What makes you doubt their strength? A column of those shelves will happily take 100+ kg, though most people use them for books and small objects, not their anvil collections.

Daniele

[damduck-egg]

In some circumstances having the floor clear may make it easier to run a vacuum around and avoid dust that builds up under floor standing furniture which could be important for people with dust allergies, in real life it would probably end up with something put there.

Is it really mechanically unsound for the job if the wall is strong enough? Doesn't seem too different from thousands of other similar arrangements from book shelves to viewing spots for tourists on the side of mountains.

Looking Naff, I've seen worse, I've seen better. some like the industrial look of dexion type systems or the shoe shop look from Spur and derivatives while others seem to like the thin coated with foil MDF offerings from Ikea etc.

G.Harman

[harry]

Sort of thing you might find in a cheap hotel.

[Graham.]

On Mon, 8 Jan 2018 22:27:18 +0100, [e-mail] (D.M. Procida) coalesced the vapors of human experience into a viable and meaningful comprehension...

In the 1950s we were too busy with postwar austerity to bother with avavant garde Scandinavian furniture designers.

[michael adams]

What's wrong with it are the metal support hangers whose function is obvious but which don't blend in with the rest of the design. They're made of metal and have a rounded angle unlike the rest of the design which is made of teak and is all right angles.

Because of the impossibility of merging the hangers seamlessly into the design this would always be a poor compromise.

Similarly because the hangers will need to divide the top surface of the shelf at regular intervals into compartments unlike Spur and similar which are hidden underneath, this poses a potential limitation on the way items can be arranged on the shelves. Rows of books for instance would have gaps at regular intervals to accommodate the pairs of hangers, which is far from ideal.

A classy solution insistent on teak throughout would have concealed metal supports in both uprights and shelves offering unbroken lengths of shelving

Cheap versions using rope as hangers look no worse and at least offer the consolation of looking utilitarian on purpose

michael adams

...

[newshound]

+1. Also I think they look very dated.