--- title: "Marcel Breuer" url: "https://www.stylepark.com/en/designer/marcel-breuer" language: "en" type: "designer" description: "Individual designer items from Marcel Breuer ✓ Wide range of products & designs ➜ Get inspired now" published: "2001-05-01T00:00:00+02:00" modified: "2026-04-26T17:27:21+02:00" image: "https://www.stylepark.com/apple-touch-icon.png" --- # Marcel Breuer United States - [Biography](https://www.stylepark.com/en/designer/marcel-breuer) - [Products](https://www.stylepark.com/en/products/designer/marcel-breuer) - [Manufacturer](https://www.stylepark.com/en/designer/marcel-breuer/manufacturer) - [Articles](https://www.stylepark.com/en/designer/marcel-breuer/contributions) Address: ## Marcel Breuer United States Products by Marcel Breuer [![Rethinking Classics: S 32/S 64 DARK MELANGE](https://www.stylepark.com/assets/transformations/manufacturers/_1410x940_crop_center-center_none/Thonet_S_32_V_S_64_V_Dark-Melange_Gruppe_V2_FF.jpg)](https://www.stylepark.com/en/thonet/rethinking-classics-s-32-s-64-dark-melange) [Thonet Rethinking Classics: S 32/S 64 DARK MELANGE](https://www.stylepark.com/en/thonet/rethinking-classics-s-32-s-64-dark-melange) [![S 32 SPVNL](https://www.stylepark.com/assets/transformations/manufacturers/_1410x940_crop_center-center_none/Thonet_S_32_SPVNL_Nussbaum_Nubukleder_medium_braun.jpg)](https://www.stylepark.com/en/thonet/s-32-spvnl) [Thonet S 32 SPVNL](https://www.stylepark.com/en/thonet/s-32-spvnl) [![S 32 NL](https://www.stylepark.com/assets/transformations/manufacturers/_1410x940_crop_center-center_none/Thonet_S_32_NL_Buche_sw_chrom_HT.jpg)](https://www.stylepark.com/en/thonet/s-32-nl) [Thonet S 32 NL](https://www.stylepark.com/en/thonet/s-32-nl) [![S 32 Lounge](https://www.stylepark.com/assets/transformations/manufacturers/_1410x940_crop_center-center_none/S_32_Lounge_06.jpg)](https://www.stylepark.com/en/thonet/s-32-lounge) [Thonet S 32 Lounge](https://www.stylepark.com/en/thonet/s-32-lounge) [![S 32 VH](https://www.stylepark.com/assets/transformations/articles/_1410x940_crop_center-center_none/Thonet_S32VH_klassisch.jpg)](https://www.stylepark.com/en/thonet/s-32-vh) [Thonet S 32 VH](https://www.stylepark.com/en/thonet/s-32-vh) [![D4N Esther Wilson](https://www.stylepark.com/assets/transformations/articles/_1410x940_crop_center-center_none/EP03685-0037.jpg)](https://www.stylepark.com/en/tecta/d4n-esther-wilson) [TECTA D4N Esther Wilson](https://www.stylepark.com/en/tecta/d4n-esther-wilson) [![D4N Kerstin Bruchhäuser](https://www.stylepark.com/assets/transformations/articles/_1410x940_crop_center-center_none/EP03685-0028.jpg)](https://www.stylepark.com/en/tecta/d4n-kerstin-bruchh%C3%A4user) [TECTA D4N Kerstin Bruchhäuser](https://www.stylepark.com/en/tecta/d4n-kerstin-bruchh%C3%A4user) [![S 64 VDR](https://www.stylepark.com/assets/transformations/manufacturers/_1410x940_crop_center-center_none/Thonet__S_64_SPVDR_ID-05-1008-10593.jpg)](https://www.stylepark.com/en/thonet/s-64-vdr) [Thonet S 64 VDR](https://www.stylepark.com/en/thonet/s-64-vdr) [![Breuer chaise longues model 1096](https://www.stylepark.com/assets/transformations/manufacturers/e/embru/produkte/breuer-chaise-longues-model-1096/_1410x940_crop_center-center_none/breuer-chaise-longues-model-1096-1.jpg)](https://www.stylepark.com/en/embru/breuer-chaise-longues-model-1096) [Embru Breuer chaise longues model 1096](https://www.stylepark.com/en/embru/breuer-chaise-longues-model-1096) [![Laccio Coffee Table](https://www.stylepark.com/assets/transformations/manufacturers/k/knoll/produkte/laccio-coffee-table/_1410x940_crop_center-center_none/laccio-coffee-table-1.jpg)](https://www.stylepark.com/en/knoll/laccio-coffee-table) [Knoll Laccio Coffee Table](https://www.stylepark.com/en/knoll/laccio-coffee-table) [![Laccio Side Table](https://www.stylepark.com/assets/transformations/manufacturers/k/knoll/produkte/laccio-side-table/_1410x940_crop_center-center_none/laccio-side-table-1.jpg)](https://www.stylepark.com/en/knoll/laccio-side-table) [Knoll Laccio Side Table](https://www.stylepark.com/en/knoll/laccio-side-table) [![Breuer Gartenliege](https://www.stylepark.com/assets/transformations/manufacturers/e/embru/produkte/breuer-gartenliege/_1410x940_crop_center-center_none/breuer-gartenliege-1.jpg)](https://www.stylepark.com/en/embru/breuer-gartenliege) [Embru Breuer Gartenliege](https://www.stylepark.com/en/embru/breuer-gartenliege) [All products](https://www.stylepark.com/en/products/designer/marcel-breuer) Biography May 21, 1902 Pécs, Hungary – July 1, 1981 New York City, architect and furniture designer, was an influential modernist. One of the fathers of Modernism, Breuer showed a great interest in modular construction and simple forms.´ Known as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at the Bauhaus in the 1920s, stressing the combination of art and technology, and eventually became the head of the carpentry shop there. He later practiced in Berlin, designing houses and commercial spaces, as well as a number of tubular metal furniture pieces, replicas of which are still in production today. Breuer may be best known for his design of the Wassily Chair, the first tubular bent-steel chair, designed in 1925 for Wassily Kandinsky and inspired in part by bicycle handlebars. Still in production, the chair can be assembled and disassembled most easily with bicycle tools. In the 1930's, due to the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, Breuer relocated to London. While in London, Breuer was employed by Jack Pritchard at the Isokon company; one of the earliest introducers of modern design to the United Kingdom. Breuer designed his Long Chair as well as experimenting with bent and formed plywood. Breuer eventually ended up in the United States. He taught at Harvard's architecture school, working with students such as Philip Johnson and Paul Rudolph who later became well-known U.S. architects. (At one point Johnson called Breuer "a peasant Mannerist".) At the same time, Breuer worked with old friend and Bauhaus colleague Walter Gropius, also at Harvard, on the design of several houses in the Boston area. Breuer dissolved his partnership with Gropius in May 1941 and established his own firm in New York. The Geller House I of 1945 is the first to employ Breuer's concept of the 'binuclear' house, with separate wings for the bedrooms and for the living / dining / kitchen area, separated by an entry hall, and with the distinctive 'butterfly' roof (two opposing roof surfaces sloping towards the middle, centrally drained) that became part of the popular modernist style vocabulary. A demonstration house set up in the MOMA garden in 1949 caused a new flurry of interest in the architect's work, and an appreciation written by Peter Blake. The 1953 commission for UNESCO headquarters in Paris was a turning point for Breuer: a return to Europe, a return to larger projects after years of only residential commissions, and the beginning of Breuer's adoption of concrete as his primary medium. He became known as one of the leading practitioners of Brutalism, with an increasingly curvy, sculptural, personal idiom. Windows were often set in soft, pillowy depressions rather than sharp, angular recesses. Many architects remarked at his ability to make concrete appear "soft". Breuer is sometimes incorrectly credited, or blamed, for the former Pan Am Building (now the MetLife Building), a high-rise in New York City considered to be unpopular. The Pan Am was actually credited to Walter Gropius. In 1969 Breuer developed a 30-story proposed skyscraper over Grand Central Terminal, called "Grand Central Tower", which Ada Louise Huxtable called 'a gargantuan tower of aggressive vulgarity', and became a cause celebre. Breuer's reputation was damaged, but the legal fall out improved the climate for landmark building preservation in New York City and across the United States. Articles about Marcel Breuer [ARCHITECTURE Brutalist icon 1/20/2026 After renovation by Herzog & de Meuron, the iconic Marcel Breuer building on Madison Avenue has reopened. "The Breuer" is the new home of Sotheby's headquarters.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/herzog-de-meuron-sothebys-nyc-architecture-brutalism-renovation-stylepark-magazine) [REVIEW – SALONE DEL MOBILE & MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2025 New networks 4/15/2025 The Salone del Mobile.Milano and the Milan Design Week took place from 8 to 13 April 2025. In the review, you can find out which ideas are currently moving the creative minds and which concepts were particularly impressive.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/salone-del-mobile-milan-design-week-review-2025-stylepark-magazine) [INTERVIEWS Strong presence 4/7/2025 The internationally renowned fashion designer Jil Sander has reinterpreted Marcel Breuer's ‘S 64’ cantilever chair for Thonet. ‘Serious’ and “Nordic” are the names of the design lines with which she has given the tubular steel classic from the 1920s a new sensuality. In this interview, she tells us what was important in the process.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/jil-sander-thonet-s64-marcel-breuer-interview-stylepark-magazine) [FEATURED PREVIEW – MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2025 JS . THONET 4/3/2025 To mark Milan Design Week 2025, Thonet is presenting an exclusive collaboration with fashion designer Jil Sander, who is internationally renowned for her purist aesthetic.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/thonet-jil-sander-preview-news-milan-design-week-stylepark-magazine) [STYLEPARK WAGNER The joy of experimentation 4/16/2024 Together with Wagner Living, architect and designer Hadi Teherani has created the ergonomic "W3D" stool using a 3D printing process in the #wagnerdesignlab. The matching tables will be presented at Milan Design Week. He tells us what the collaboration is about in an interview.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/wagner-living-hadi-teherani-w3d-milan-design-week-stylepark-magazine) [REVIEW – IMM COLOGNE 2024 Becoming a community 1/18/2024 imm cologne took place in Cologne from 14 to 18 January 2024, the first time since the breakout of the coronavirus pandemic on the regular January date. Our review.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/imm-cologne-designpost-passagen-furniture-fair-cologne-review-stylepark-magazin) [DESIGN A cantilever with a swivel 6/18/2019 Christophe Marchand has transformed Marcel Breuer’s famous cantilever seat “S 64” by Thonet into a swivel chair.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/thonet-s-64-vdr-atelier) [100 YEARS OF BAUHAUS An extremely vibrant monument 5/20/2019 200 years of design history – illustrated by 70 chairs made by a single company. Steffen Kehrle’s redesign highlights Munich’s Die Neue Sammlung’s Thonet collection.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/exhibition-thonet-munich) [DESIGN On the death of Florence Knoll Bassett 2/15/2019 When she died, the world lost a pioneer of Modernist furniture, one whose carefully designed rooms fired the imagination of a post-War global community who felt united in its aesthetic sensibilities. Just how fragile the foundations of this community were is something that we are experiencing today. Along with the importance of the example she set us.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/florence-knoll-bassett-obituary-death-knoll-international) [DESIGN Stretch out and lay 5/16/2017 Be it on castors, suspended, or a fold-out: We present sun recliners which you will simply want to stay lying on.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/sun-lounger-garden-outdoor-design) [DESIGN Wear pine 11/11/2015 Do furniture design and fashion swing to the same rhythm? We had a look round in Cologne, London, Milan, New York, Paris and Stockholm: And started with color.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/wear-pine) [DESIGN Thonetology 5/4/2014 Can a show about Thonet bring any new insights? The Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Leipzig is hosting “Sit, Recline, Rock – Thonet Furniture” thru’ September 14, highlighting what chapters there are still to be discovered in the “Thonet saga”.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/thonetology) [MAGAZINE Going vintage ain’t enough 6/16/2013 The Design Miami trade fair, which runs parallel to Art Basel, was not very convincing. It lacked a clear curatorial thrust, exciting exhibitions and statements. And not least there was no clear position on contemporary design, although this is so sorely needed.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/going-vintage-aint-enough) [MAGAZINE Twelve outdoor classics 5/8/2013 Stylish and fit for any activity: Outdoor classics for sitting, lounging or just looking pretty. Attractive, cool and simply indispensable.](https://www.stylepark.com/en/news/twelve-outdoor-classics)