Modernist home
Modernist home
Contents
MODEL B3
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CHAISE LONGUE
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CESCA C32
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BARCELONA CHAIR
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LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE
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SHORT CHAIR
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LCW
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DAR CHAIR
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CHARLES AND RAY EAMES
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BALL CHAIR
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1927
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While teaching at the Bauhaus, Breuer often rode a bicycle, a pastime that led him to what is perhaps the single most important innovation in furniture design in the twentieth century: the use of tubular steel. The tubular steel of his bicycle’s handlebars was strong and lightweight, and lent itself to mass-production. Breuer reasoned that if it could be bent into handlebars, it could be bent into furniture forms.
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Manufacturer Thonet
Designer Marcel Breuer Height: 72 cm Depth: 78 cm Length: 71 cm
Dimensions
1928
CHAISE LONGUE
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Cassina Marcel Breuer
Dimensions Manufacturer Designer
Height: 75 cm Depth: 58 cm Length: 137 cm
The LC4 Chaise Longue is undoubtedly one of the most iconic pieces of furniture of the twentieth century. The chair was designed by Le Corbusier in collaboration with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand in 1928. Le Corbusier, who was fascinated by the aesthetics of machines, also called this chaise longue a “relaxing machine.” In the first model, which was produced by craftsmen under the supervision of Charlotte Perriand, the ends at the foot and head sections of the chair were still welded on and interrupted the continuous line of the tubular steel frame. An example of this type of chair was exhibited by Le Corbusier, Jeanneret, and Perriand at their “L’equipement d’une habitation” stand at the 1929 Paris autumn salon.
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1928
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Height: 80 cm Depth: 60 cm Length: 60 cm Knoll Marcel Breuer
Dimensions Manufacturer Designer
Designed in 1928, Marcel Breuer’s Cesca chair married traditional craftsmanship with industrial methods and materials to help make tubular steel furniture an international sensation and a modern institution. The cantilevered form exploits the possibilities unique to the material and gives the chair added flexibility and comfort. The Cesca chair is offered in arm and armless versions with a fully upholstered seat and back, or with hand-woven cane inserts.
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1929
BARCELONA CHAIR
The Barcelona Chair is one of the most imitated designs of all time. It was designed by Mies van der Rohe, the last director of the Bauhaus before the Nazis closed the school and he fled to America, and was intended to provide a comfortable break for the King of Spain as he visited the German Pavilion at the International Exposition of 1929.
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Although an example of the machine style, the chair is largely hand-made: the cushions are made from 148 separate pieces of leather and the chromed stainless steel frame is hand buffed to a mirror finish.
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Manufacturer Knoll
Designer Mies van der Rohe Height: 76 cm Depth: 76 cm Length: 75 cm
Dimensions
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LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE 1886 - 1969
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), a German-born architect and educator, is widely acknowledged as one of the 20th century’s greatest architects. By emphasizing open space and revealing the industrial materials used in construction, he helped define modern architecture. Born in Aachen, Germany, Mies spent the first half of his career in his native country. His early work was mainly residential, and he received his first independent commission, the Riehl House, when he was only 20 years old. Mies quickly became a leading figure in the avant-garde life of Berlin and was widely respected in Europe for his innovative structures, including the Barcelona Pavilion. In 1930, he was named director of the Bauhaus, the renowned German school of experimental art and design, which he led until 1933 when he closed the school under pressure from the Nazi Regime.
Armour Institute, one of IIT’s predecessor institutions, was founded in 1890 just as Chicago was emerging as a center for progressive architectural thought. Men like Burnham and Root, Sullivan and Adler, and William Le Baron Jenney were transforming the practice and developing an architectural vocabulary that emphasized structure and function over ornamentation. This generation of architects founded what became known as the first Chicago School of architecture. Mies van der Rohe founded the next. In 1936, when Earl Reed resigned as director of the Department of Architecture at Armour Institute, the school engaged Chicago’s architectural leaders in the search for a new director. The search committee, headed by John Holabird, recruited Mies. Mies’ first task was to “rationalize” the architecture curriculum.
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1936
SHORT CHAIR
The Isokon ‘Short Chair’ was a translation into plywood of an aluminium chair designed by Marcel Breuer in 1932. When Breuer emigrated to Britain, Walter Gropius had just been appointed Controller of Design to Jack Pritchard’s fledgling Isokon Furniture Company, and it was Gropius’s suggestion that Breuer design a version of the aluminium chair in plywood.
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The sensuous curves of the plywood seat, with its built-in headrest, are played off against the four strips of bentwood that support it and also supply the armrests. English traditional notions of comfort and Modernist principles of clear expression of materials and structure were perfectly combined in this design.
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Manufacturer Isokon
Designer Marcel Breuer Height: 83 cm Depth: 60 cm Length: 95 cm
Dimensions
1945
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Height: 68 cm Depth: 61 cm Length: 56 cm Vitra Charles and Ray Eames
Dimensions Manufacturer Designer
The LCW Chair was designed for Vitra by the designer couple Charles and Ray Eames as a part of the Plywood Group Collection. Charles and Ray Eames spent many years experimenting with new processes for optimizing the way that three-dimensionally moulded plywood fits the contours of the body. The result was the LCW chair, with its moulded plywood seat, backrest and base.
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1950
DAR CHAIR
The Eames DAR Chairs introduced a new furniture typology that has since become widespread: a multifunctional chair where the shell can be combined with a variety of different bases to serve a range of purposes. As early as 1950, Charles and Ray Eames presented a series of bases that enabled various sitting positions. An especially striking model is the Eiffel Tower base – an intricate design made of steel wire that combines light, elegant forms with structural strength.
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Manufacturer Vitra
Designer Charles and Ray Eames Height: 83 cm Depth: 59 cm Length: 63 cm
Dimensions
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CHARLES AND RAY EAMES (1907-1978) (1912-1988)
American designers Charles (1907-1978) and his wife Ray (19121988) Eames made groundbreaking contributions to many creative fields including architecture, furniture design, industrial design, graphic design, fine arts and film. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Charles Eames grew up in America’s industrial heartland. As a young man he worked for engineers and manufacturers, anticipating his lifelong interest in mechanics and the complex working of things. Ray Kaiser, born in Sacramento, California, demonstrated her fascination with the abstract qualities of ordinary objects early on. She spent her formative years in the orbit of New York’s modern art movements and participated in the first wave of American-born abstract artists. The couple married in 1941 and moved from Michigan, where they had met at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, to Los Angeles and established an office together. With a grand sense of adventure, Charles and Ray turned their curiosity and boundless enthusiasm into creations that established them as a truly great husband and wife design team. Their unique connection led to a whole new look in furniture. The couple got their first big break in 1942 when the US navy placed an order for 5,000 splints that they had made from a mould of Charles’ own leg. Having moved into a rented studio on nearby Santa Monica Boulevard, the couple continued their experiments in plywood, producing furniture such as the Plywood Chair (1945), sculptures and even toys. After plywood, the Eames focused on projects with other materials by creating furniture in fibreglass, plastic, aluminium and, for the 1956 Lounge Chair, which was designed as a gift for director Billy Wilder, leather and a rich plywood. It was their experiments with fibreglass that led to the production of one of their most recognisable pieces still today: the Eames plastic armchair.
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1963
EERO AARNIO BALL CHAIR 19
Adelta Eero Aarnio
Dimensions Manufacturer Designer
Height: 120 cm Depth: 98 cm Length: 105 cm
The Ball Chair (or globe chair), was designed by Finnish furniture designer Eero Aarnio in 1963. The idea behind the chair used one of the most simple geometric forms - the ball. In his own words, the chair is a “room within a room, with a cozy and calm athmosphere, protecting from outside noises and giving a private space for relaxing or having a phonecall�. Turning around its own axis on the base, the view to the outer space is variable for the user and thus they are not completely excluded from their environment.
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