A box becomes a framework
The interest of Elling begins around the storage compartments. Horizontal rails extend beyond the volumes they support, and upright members continue the drawing towards the floor. The framework lets drawers and doors appear as elements placed in space rather than a face applied to one enclosing block.
Rietveld designed the buffet in 1919. The Foundation records its use in several interiors and identifies Piet Elling as the purchaser of the original.1 The person whose name the piece carries is not thereby its co-designer.
Let the parts keep their identities
The open intervals give the rails a different job from the drawer fronts. One draws a line; another holds things. Their meeting remains visible, so the cabinet offers a small lesson in how furniture can organise both objects and empty space.
This is the pleasure of looking at the sideboard obliquely. Depth reveals overlapping members that a flat frontal photograph can compress. The same storage functions remain familiar, while their arrangement feels surprisingly light.
Reconstruction is part of the history
The original did not survive. The Foundation records a reconstruction made by Gerard van de Groenekan for the 1951 De Stijl exhibition, then discusses Cassina’s introduction in 2019.1 Cassina’s catalogue likewise separates the 1919 design date from its 2019 production.2
Those dates make the design’s continued life more interesting. Later makers had to turn an earlier spatial proposal back into furniture. Elling’s enduring quality lies in the way its separate parts still make a complete, usable cabinet easy to imagine.
