A Brit and a Spaniard walk into a bar…. It didn’t exactly happen that way, but UK design studio PearsonLloyd and Spanish furniture manufacturer Martinez Otero did join forces to develop Horizon, a modular system that can be fashioned into anything from a sideboard to a wardrobe. Versatility is Horizon’s forte: the line offers four different sizes for width and depth, and eight for height (you do the math but the resulting number of combinations is great, especially when you figure that each piece can then be joined to any number of others).

Horizon. Designed by PearsonLloyd for Martinez Otero.

Like a growing child, Horizon can consequently be added to as needs arise—and this makes sense coming from PearsonLloyd, who favor the human metaphor: “Our desire is to produce compelling solutions that are intelligent, appropriate and timeless, and contribute to what for us, is the still embryonic craft of industrial design.” The Horizon modular line is fully formed and functioning. Choose from three types of wood and a wide array of colored lacquers, giving you a variety of matte and glossy looks. The sides of each Horizon unit can be further enhanced by being in a different finish than the piece’s main body, including a mirrored option that lends the piece depth. On their own, the clean lines of Horizon are smooth, appearing to become one with the floor. But Horizon can also be mounted on a base with legs, creating an entirely different aesthetic (and a height that proves more usable for the elderly–or young who nonetheless suffer from lumbago).

I like Horizon best as a long expanse of low units in shiny, lacquered green—a bold stretch of synthetic grass sprouting directly from the ground like a cubist version of a perfectly preened lawn (a commentary on golf courses, if you will—put that in your pipe and smoke it, you polo-wearing, eighteen-hole, wasteful consumers of water).