Furniture that Frames the Story
How modular systems become active participants in film
In film, nothing is accidental. From the flicker of a light to the weight of a pause, every element contributes to the atmosphere and meaning. Among these, furniture often plays a quiet but essential role. Especially modular furniture. Adaptable by nature and full of visual intent, it becomes more than a backdrop. It helps define the story, the mood, even the psychology of a space. Like architecture, it can express control, individuality, satire or optimism.
The narrative potential of modularity is powerfully explored in the corporate abstraction of Severance and the sterile modernity of PlayTime.
Severance: Modularity as Control
Apple TV+'s Severance presents Lumon Industries as a workplace defined by detachment. The building is real, the former Bell Labs in New Jersey, but inside, the environment is carefully stripped of warmth. Mid-century modernism, brutalist influence, and retro-futurist details are blended to create a space that is neutral on the surface but quietly oppressive underneath.
Here, modular furniture serves not for flexibility but for control. The Macrodata Refinement department is arranged arranged in grouped workstations that can be visually isolated or opened up by adjustable dividers. This layout becomes a metaphor for the split consciousness of Lumon's employees, who live as two versions of themselves. Separation is designed, not chosen.
Created as a modular system with endless potential, it is recontextualized here as a symbol of fragmentation. People are treated like parts, managed and rearranged.
In Severance, modularity is stripped of its promise. It becomes architecture for control.
PlayTime: Standardisation and Satire
In PlayTime, Jacques Tati constructs an entire city to satirize the uniformity of modern design. “Tativille”, his purpose-built set, is a grid of glass, metal and concrete. Every space looks like every other. Cubicles, corridors, apartments, pavements, all built from the same visual language.
Furniture becomes part of the joke. Identical chairs appear in trade fairs, private homes, offices. The film’s limited palette and reflective surfaces amplify the sense of repetition. Tati’s camera treats people like moving parts inside a machine.
His critique is gentle, almost playful. Objects that promise ease instead produce complication. The chairs are sleek but uncomfortable. The layouts are clean but confusing. Modularity, in this world, means surrendering individuality to a larger system that values symmetry over expression.
Beyond Dystopia: Modularity as Possibility
In Severance and PlayTime, modularity is cast in a critical light, a symbol of control, repetition, and loss of individuality. But outside fiction, it tells a different story. In the real world, modular design is not about limitation. It’s about freedom.
At its core, modularity enables adaptability. It allows environments to grow, evolve, and shift without losing their integrity. This flexibility goes beyond function. It becomes a tool for expression, enabling us to shape our surroundings according to our values and needs.
Modularity opens the door to collaboration between user and environment, creating spaces that grow and evolve alongside us.
Design Your Own Narrative
Modular design tells stories. In film, it often defines what kind of world the characters live in. At Vorestik, we believe it also reflect yours.
Our modular system Vorestik Modules are built on principles admired by set designers, architects, and industrial thinkers: precision, material honesty, and adaptability. Whether your environemnt is changing, expanding, or refining, the system is ready to follow.
With Vorestik Modules, you’re not following a script. You’re writing your own.