Kubus, read by its measurements
Wilhelm Wagenfeld designed the Kubus stacking containers in 1938 for Vereinigte Lausitzer Glaswerke: plain pressed glass boxes with flat lids, for the refrigerator, the pantry and the table.
Known here only from museum records, the set is easiest to understand through its dimensions. The Met's set lists a square base about 18 cm a side. Then boxes 18 by 9. Then boxes 9 by 9. One square, cut in half, cut in half again. Every lid is a flat slab under 2 cm high, so whatever sits on top lands on a level floor. Stacked, the Corning Museum record says, the pieces become one solid rectangular mass.
That is a floor plan more than a set of dishes. The kitchen is given one block of storage, and each box is a room in it.
The glass does the rest. It is clear, so the contents show without lifting a lid, and plain enough to carry to the table. MoMA's label makes the point: the boxes could go from refrigerator to table, which encouraged thrifty use of leftovers. Storage and serving became the same object.
By Raz Rotenberg, made with AI
