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A Nour arrangement at sunset showing the argument this page makes: separate 800 millimetre modules standing flush in a run and a return with no wedge and no filler piece between them, two slatted teak tables clear in the open centre, and the sea beyond.

The difference

Modular, not sectional

The two words are used as though they mean the same thing, and in most catalogues they nearly do. The distinction that matters is not what a sofa is called. It is whether the shape was decided by the person who made it or by the person who lives with it.

A sectional is sold as a shape. It arrives in pieces because a lorry requires it to, and those pieces join into the one arrangement the sofa was bought as. A modular system is sold as parts. Every part is the same footprint, every part stands on its own, and the arrangement is a decision you keep making.

AA sectionalOne shape, decided at the moment of buying. The seams are where the pieces were joined, not where they come apart.
BThe same five modulesIdentical footprints, standing separately. Nothing is bolted to anything and there is no filler piece at the corner.
CThe same five againNo piece was bought, sold or altered between B and C. The grid is what makes the second arrangement free.

Every Mienna module is 800 W × 800 D MM. That single fact is what panels B and C are: a run meets a return square, with no wedge and no filler piece, because the parts were drawn on one grid rather than fitted to one shape.

In practice

What the difference actually buys you

Changing your mind
A sectional that no longer suits the room is the wrong sofa. The same modules in a different order are the same modules, and it costs an afternoon.
Moving
Terraces in this country are rarely the same shape twice. A run that fitted the old one becomes an L or a U in the new one without buying a piece.
Adding later
The footprint does not change between ranges or between years, so a module bought later still lines up with the ones already there.
One damaged seat
On a joined sectional, sun damage to one section is a problem for the whole sofa. Here it is one module, and it is replaced as one module.

Plainly

What is settled, and what is not

Footprint
800 W × 800 D MM
Modules per range
4
Joined together
No. Each module is freestanding
Filler pieces
None. The grid removes the need
Assembly
Modules arrive assembled; no tools required.
Cushion covers
Orderable

Two rows above are empty, and they are two of the questions a careful buyer asks next: what a module weighs to move on your own, and what one replacement module costs when the sun has had eight years at it.

Neither is answered here because neither has an answer yet. A workshop has not been signed, so nothing about weight or replacement pricing comes from anybody who has built one. They will appear on this page when they come from the people doing the making, and not before.

Made in the UAEMaterials and craft

Build your own
Six material samples laid in a row across the right of a pale limewashed plaster surface: four outdoor weaves running from warm off-white through oatmeal and grey to charcoal, an offcut of oiled teak timber, and a flat chip of matte black powder-coated metal.

Order a sample

Up to four weaves, posted free within the United Arab Emirates. A name and an address, and nothing else. No account and no password.

Order a sample