Dorothee Becker
Dorothee Becker was born in 1938 in Aschaffenburg. Her father was the owner of a drugstore, where Dorothee discovered large cupboards with many drawers full of exciting objects as a girl. She later studied languages at the universities of Frankfurt and Munich, lived in London and Paris before moving to California in 1960. In California she met her husband, the lighting designer Ingo Maurer. Together with her husband Dorothee Becker returned to Germany at the end of the 60s.
Uten.Silo - not a toy but a design classic
In 1968 Dorothee Becker, enthusiastic about the Montessori approach, built a wooden toy based on a plate with geometric cut-outs and matching counterparts so that her children could develop a sense of geometric shapes. Since her children were not interested in the toy, Dorothee Becker developed a stylish and practical storage shelf instead of children's toys. Encouraged by her husband Ingo Maurer, Dorothee Becker changed her design and decided against wood for malleable plastic. She presented the shelf with its many compartments for the first time at the Frankfurt trade fair in the spring of 1969. Dorothee Becker called her designer shelf "Uten.Silo", it perfectly matched the fashion of the time, which is now a design classic, such as Joe Colombo's Container B-Line, Vico Magistretti's Atollo lamp or Verner Panton's Panton Chair. The design, born in the time of the "Swinging Sixties", convinces through simplicity and practicality.
The Uten.Silo by Dorothee Becker is just a name ...
In the course of the oil crisis of 1973 less crude oil is produced, the raw material becomes more expensive and the production of the plastic shelf has to be stopped. The Uten Silo remains the only successful invention by Dorothee Becker, who ran a successful shop under this name in Munich until 1989, where she sold design and practical everyday objects. At the end of the 1990s Vitra rediscovered the useful shelf for kitsch and stuff and revived it. The classic is now available in two sizes and comparatively discreet colours.
The Dorothee Becker Uten.silo - revived by Vitra
The Uten Silo is fixed to the wall and offers different containers for stowing small objects, which one likes to have immediately at hand. It creates practical storage space and facilitates retrieval. In addition, other everyday objects can be hung on the metal hooks of the wall container. Vitra now produces Dorothee Becker's Uten.Silo from durable and break-resistant ABS plastic, which is also used in mechanical engineering and vehicle construction.