A-Z Management Maintenance Unit

The A-Z Management Maintenance Unit combines all functions of living in an attempt to satisfy the often conflicting needs of security, stability, freedom and autonomy. The Unit was originally built for Zittel’s personal use, to carry a sense of permanence with her as she moved about every six months. The Unit could be collapsed and easily transported, like a permanent house to carry to each new house. This was the first time Zittel used modern design in her work. What interested her was not the way it looked, but it’s ability to invert values, social codes and ideologies. For instance, before modern design, white paint was primarily used by those who couldn’t afford pigments. Modern design elevated white paint to represent moral purity. At the time Zittel built her personal Unit, she was young, poor and without many possessions. The design of the Unit harnessed the unique ability of modern design to transform these limitations into liberation.