Dado, a flat-pack furniture range from Berlin studio Allen Kaufmann Architekten, is built as dado joint furniture. It uses no glue, screws, brackets or other fasteners. Solid timber pieces stay in place through a single woodworking joint. Dezeen readers voted it furniture design of the year.
The joint is the dado, also called a housing joint. It is a narrow trench cut across the length of one board so that a second board slots into it. Woodworkers have used it for thousands of years.
Allen Kaufmann took that familiar cut and asked a different question. Could it carry an entire piece of furniture? Co-founder Justin Allen put it this way: “I started with the traditional dado cut, a simple groove cut into timber, and asked whether that basic operation could become an entire structural system rather than simply a joint.”
How the joint works
The studio’s patented dado joint took several years of prototyping to perfect. It turns the dado 45 degrees, so one cut can join four elements instead of two. A vertical member, a horizontal member and two diagonal braces lock together at a single point.
Allen compares the result to a timber barn. “Visually, it has something of a post-and-beam construction, with intersecting diagonal bracing, almost like the inside of a timber barn,” he said. The geometry and the way all four elements meet, he added, give the joint its own distinct look.
Dado’s compact, tool-free assembly has a relative in the bedroom world, where adaptable plywood bedroom furniture that saves space shows how plywood can be reconfigured without bulk.
Why flat-pack needs a better joint
Allen argues that permanently fixed furniture is heavy, costly and emissions-intensive to transport. Traditional flat-pack systems have their own problem. Their screws, brackets and fittings are easy to lose or damage.
Both approaches make furniture harder to take apart and reuse. A piece that still works can end up abandoned as a result.
The range leaves its joints exposed. The studio hopes owners will see how the pieces fit together and learn how to maintain them. “The connection remains visible, so the joint becomes the detail, the structure, the assembly and ultimately the design,” Allen said.
If the problem of furniture that is hard to take apart interests you, Satoshi Itasaka’s FLAT/FORM, designed for easy assembly and longevity takes a similar approach to lasting, repairable pieces.
The system in production
So far, the dado system has produced a table and a modular shelving range built from a small set of repeated parts. Each standard component is CNC milled to machine precision. That precision means a single workshop, anywhere in the world, can produce the whole range.
The studio’s subbrand AKO widens the collection. It includes the DADO X Table, Dovetail shelves, side tables, a lounge chair, benches, stools and small objects such as books and puzzles. The Dovetail series relies on sliding dovetails, while both joinery systems were developed in Germany. The collection debuted at Berlin Design Week 2026, the first public exhibition of AKO as a dedicated object practice. Visitors could handle the wooden parts and joinery samples themselves. The studio also showed material studies in brass, aluminium and heat-treated steel.
The design now competes for the overall Dezeen Awards title, judged by a panel that includes Norman Foster, Michael Anastassiades and Jaime Hayon. It is up against projects from Tom Fereday, Yabu Pushelberg, String Furniture and others.
Allen’s broader goal is to make architectural thinking part of everyday objects. “Most people will never hire an architect or live in a building designed specifically for them,” he has said. A shelf or a stool, he argues, can bring that thinking into ordinary life. Dado shows how little hardware that can require.
Source: dezeen.com
Frequently asked questions
What is Dado furniture from Allen Kaufmann Architekten?
Dado is a flat-pack furniture range from the Berlin studio Allen Kaufmann Architekten. Its solid timber pieces stay together through a single woodworking joint, the dado joint.
Does Dado furniture use any screws, glue, or brackets?
No, Dado furniture uses no glue, screws, brackets or other fasteners. The solid timber pieces are held in place only by the dado joint.
How does the Dado joint lock furniture pieces together?
The studio’s patented joint turns the traditional dado 45 degrees so one cut can join four elements instead of two. A vertical member, a horizontal member and two diagonal braces lock together at a single point.
Why did Allen Kaufmann design Dado without traditional flat-pack fittings?
The studio says screws, brackets and fittings in traditional flat-pack systems are easy to lose or damage. Both traditional flat-pack and permanently fixed furniture make pieces harder to take apart and reuse, so the studio wanted a better joint.
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