This fun, innovative group of modular furniture, based on the familiar profile of a moving dolly, is the brainchild of three Cornell University alums. Architect William Lim, founder of CL3, along with Vincent Lim and Elaine Lu, cofounders of studio Lim + Lu, designed 12 portable pieces for use in their alma mater’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. Knowing that the Gensler-designed building already features movable partition walls, the designers thought the furniture should be versatile, too. “We wanted to complement the space with something flexible and portable,” Lu says.

The push-pull pieces can also be turned on their sides or stood on end for alternative uses. The coffee table, for example, when lifted upright, can be a bookshelf; the three-seater sofa doubles as a coat rack. The block primary colors of the vinyl upholstery on frames of powder-coated steel owe a debt to Le Corbusier, an icon of modernism. “Every piece has two lives—standing up and lying down,” says Vincent Lim.