Dorothee Becker

DOROTHEE BECKER (Aschaffenburg, 1938 – 2023) for DESIGN M / INGO MAURER.
"Uten.Silo" wall-mounted storage panel. Munich, West Germany, designed in 1969, produced in the 1970s.
Plastic and metal.
Vintage piece. Exhibits wear consistent with age and use.
Measurements: 87 x 67 x 8 cm.

"Uten.Silo" wall organizer panel, original large version, designed by Dorothee Becker in 1969 and produced by Design M—the company owned by her husband, designer Ingo Maurer—in Munich during the 1970s. A landmark piece in the history of 20th-century industrial design, part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and later reissued by Vitra. The piece is made entirely of glossy black molded ABS plastic, with nickel-plated metal hooks and clips. A modular system of containers in various shapes and sizes—cubes, ovals, rectangles, triangles, and cylinders—is arranged on a rectangular base with rounded corners, allowing everyday household, office, or workshop items to be organized in a functional and visually coherent manner. The result is an object that transcends its utilitarian purpose to become a wall-mounted sculptural composition with great visual impact. Dorothee Becker, a self-taught designer who trained in Frankfurt, London, Paris, and California, conceived the Uten.Silo as a direct response to the real needs of domestic spaces, laying the groundwork for what we now call storage system design.