Marcel Breuer’s Wassily Chair

The Wassily Chair, also known as the B3 Chair, is a design masterpiece that marries form and function with unparalleled elegance. Crafted by the visionary architect and designer Marcel Breuer in the early 1920s, this iconic chair is celebrated for its innovative use of materials and its captivating visual appeal. The Wassily Chair is not just a piece of furniture but a work of art that transcends time and trends.

Born in 1902, Marcel Breuer is a Hungarian interior and furniture designer. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 1920, but left for Germany shortly after due to dissatisfaction with his studies. He was accepted as an apprentice in the Bauhaus carpentry department. Here he developed the wooden slatted chair in 1922, which is considered one of the most important products of the Bauhaus. From 1925 Marcel headed the furniture department and designed his first piece of furniture made of steel: the famous Wassily chair, which was later followed by other furniture in the same technique and material.

After 1936 Marcel Breuer went to the United States and over the years became known worldwide as an architect through his designs for the UNESCO building in Paris. He received numerous commissions in Europe and the United States and is still considered one of the most successful architects of his time.

When Marcel Breuer was 23 years old, he befriended a young architect and bought his first own bicycle. He learned to ride a bicycle and talked to his new friend about how the bicycle was actually the perfect production of the last 20 years because the design never changed. His friend then asked him, "Have you ever seen how the parts of the bicycle are made?" That got Marcel Breuer thinking, and somehow it got him thinking. Steel tubes bent to form the frame. This, he thought, could be applied to making an elastic and transparent chair.

"Thus was born the first Wassily chair around 1925....'' The challenge was that the frame only had to be bent, without welding points, so that the chair could be chromed and assembled in parts. Visits to his studio by his friend Wassily Kandinsky and his interest in the chair brought him to the attention of the Bauhaus. A year later, the entire Bauhaus had exhibited this piece of furniture, a great success!