Nuage Bookcase

Overview

Nuage by Charlotte Perriand is a modular shelving system. Cassina's page heads it with the design year 1952 and calls the unit a shelving unit from 1940; its production year tab reads 2012. It can be a storage cabinet, a double-sided or wall bookcase, wall-hung or free-standing in the centre of a room, and the page describes a free form that lends movement to the space.

Construction

• Shelves: solid blockboard veneered in natural or stained black oak, low-gloss finish
• Plots: natural anodised aluminium, or painted matt black or white
• Cabinets: anodised aluminium in a wide array of colours
• Feet: adjustable

Specifications

• Free-standing composition 5B–5G: W 292 × D 48 × H 182 cm (114.9 × 18.9 × 71.7 inches), compartments 33 cm high with one 14 cm level
• Free-standing 2B–2G: W 215 × D 48 × H 177 cm
• Wall-hung 0E–0J: W 152 × D 34 × H 39 cm

Clouds in Kyoto

Cassina's page says the Nuage shelving unit dates from 1940 and that Charlotte Perriand drew on what she had seen of cloud-like, wall-hung modular shelves in Kyoto to develop her own version, which it calls functional, attractive and versatile.

Combinations

According to the page, the units can be combined with one another for many purposes: sideboards, cupboards, bookshelves against a wall or hung from it, and free-standing room dividers. The cabinets, offered in anodised aluminium in a wide array of colours, interact with the open shelves in what the page calls a delightful interplay of volumes and voids.