Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer, his full name is Marcel Lajos Breur he was born on the 21st of May in 1902 in

the provincial city of pecs, hungary. 

In 1924/ 28 He designed and created a prototype steel furniture and interchangeable cabinet.

Black and white fabric were available, as well as a popular wire-mesh fabric version. The Thonet produced version of the chair is most rare, and

went out of production during World War II 

  

Marcel Breuer is known as one of ‘the masters of modernism’. In 1920 Breuer began studying at the German Bauhaus school, specializing in visual arts and architecture, the Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in modernist architecture and modern design. The modern movement in architecture and industrial design which emerged in the early 20thcentury, responded to sweeping changes in technology and society. A new world of machines and cities forced artists to think anew about their environment, and soon revolutionized the way we perceive, portray, and participate in the world. Modernist ideas have pervaded every form of design, from graphics to architecture, as well as being a key influence on art, literature and music.

Marcel was a highly influential architect and furniture designer, His most famous furniture design was the iconic tubular steel chair the Wassily chair, inspired by bicycle handlebars. 

(The Wassily Chair, also known as the Model B3 chair, was designed by Marcel Breuer in 1925-1926 ).It was first available in both a folding and a non-folding versions. In this early iteration, the straps were made of fabric, pulled taut on the reverse side with the use of springs. Black and white fabric were available, as well as a popular wire-mesh fabric version.The chair marked an aesthetic turning

point in furniture production as well as the start of an important branch of industry.  Breuer designed the chair to have good functional properties as well as aesthetic properties.

Breuer says “This metal furniture is to be nothing more than a necessary device for modern-day living.” This shows that he clearly intended for it to have high functional use.

• “Structure is not just a means to a solution. It is also a principle and a passion” Is Marcel’s personal philosophy, which let his ideas and designs go through to the 21st century.

• Inspiring many furniture designers by his tubular steel furniture idea generated by the strength of his bicycle handle bars, and using that to create functional designs, Marcel’s passion allowed his designs to succeeded in increasing the idea of modernism which is now one of the most popular furniture designs in the world.

Bahaus• He studied and taught at the famous Bahaus in Weimar. He left Germany in 1935 to join Gropius in London.

• By this time he was one of the most well known architects in Europe.

• His reputation had been based on the invention of tubular steel furniture, one big residence, two apartment houses, some shop interiors and several competition entries.

Common themes of modern architecture include:•the notion that "Form follows function", a dictum meaning that the result of design should derive directly from its purpose.•simplicity and clarity of forms and elimination of "unnecessary detail"•visual expression of structure (as opposed to the hiding of structural elements), a relatable concept would be ‘The Truth of Materials’.

•The Gane Pavilion or Gane's Pavilion was a temporary building designed by the modernist architect and furniture designer Marcel Breuer and F. R. S. Yorke and built in Bristol in the United Kingdom. The pavilion was commissioned by Crofton Gane, a Bristol-based furniture manufacturer, as a showroom to display his range of products at the Royal Agricultural Show in 1936. Breuer had redesigned Gane's house the year before. The Gane pavilion was a flat-roofed building with planes of local stone and glass walls. The interior was finished with plywood.

Buildings made by Breuer

The Ameritrust Tower (formerly known as the Cleveland Trust Tower) is a high-rise building in the brutalist style located at the corner of East 9th Street and Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The building is 29 stories and rises to a height of 383 ft (117 m). It was designed by Marcel Breuer and Hamilton Smith and completed in1971.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi_qINpr5XY

• Breuer’s successive steps can be studied in the now historic series of houses built between 1938 and 1941, when breuer practiced in partnership with walter Gropius in Cambridge, Massachusetts: haggerty house, a steel frame beach house which introduced vertical wood siding, contrasted with slab walls of rough stone; breuer’s own house in Lincoln Massachusetts (1939), which incorporated an open, three-level plan of great influence on many of breuer’s studentsand chamberlain cottage, weyland, massachusettes (1940) which remains, for all its modest proportions, a landmark in American architecture.

•  • The fact that a wood frame of very light members is strong enough ti withstand all loads and stresses and is so scientifically nailed that it defeats even the upward pull and twist of hurricane strength winds. 

• Breur house 1 , new canaan Connecticut

• Structure of breuer house 1, new canaan, connecticut

Design processMarcel Breuer uses significant Bahaus inspired designs. This can be seen with the use of

materials, aluminium, tubular steel and plywood pieces, which are a continuing and

unique theme. These processes developed over time and is

noticeable when looking at his earlier and later design

models. Notable designs are his “cube” chairs made from leather and tubular steel.

What this us about Marcel’s approach to his design process is that it was constantly changing and to suit the modern movements at the time.

The Whitney museum of American art displayed an innovative design process involving concrete. The design has been influenced by modernism.

Formal language; communication

I recognise Marcel’s language to be expressed through the transitions between design processes and modernistic movements. He communicated these ideas mostly through furniture. Ideas such as simpler materials, simpler and more abstract designs and accessible to anyone.

How this information might help my own practice?

Marcel Breuer’s work would simply inform my practice that modern architecture is the way forward if someone is initiating a career in architecture. Buildings that are made around the principle of ‘form follows function’ are more dominant in society than traditional architecture which focused heavily on aesthetical properties. An example of how I could apply this in my practice is by designing buildings that are necessary in normal human lives and buildings which are needed most in this day and age such as schools or colleges , offices, flats/other types of living spaces.