Chart Concept 1

Since I am more into simple, functional designs, which actually serve a purpose and have no excessive decoration, I decided to follow this path in choosing my designers. So I started with Marcel Breuer since he is the most influential furniture designer for the Bauhaus movement. Breuer was first recognized for his invention of bicycle-handlebar-inspired tubular steel furniture thanks to the innovative aluminium, tubular-steel and also for making use of plywood. In these designs he made use of cantilevers. Breuer also experimented with the bending of plywood which he was inspired by Alvar Aalto. Since he is also a source of inspiration for Ray & Charles Eames, I will talk about him later.

Marcel Breuer worked for Bauhaus in the 1920’s, so one also has to keep in mind what was happening to the rest of the world at the time. At the beginning of the decade we have the prohibition in the U.S. and at the end there was the beginning of the Great Depression and the fall of the Stock Market. In the mean time we have the Extreme Inflation in Germany which was causing prices to rocket sky high due to the expenses caused by the War. It was also the time of new improvements and discoveries and when women were starting to be recognised for their abilities and starting to gain equal rights as men. Such as the fact that women were also granted to vote in the U.S. a woman swims across the English Channel and Lindbergh Flies solo across the Atlantic where he later marries Amelia Earhart and eventually she too flies across the Atlantic.

Therefore it was the time of new inventions and possibilities. But it was also a time of financial instability, first for Germany, so even the designers had to be careful of what type of materials to use and to make it as cheap as possible but still keeping a sense of style. I think this was one of the reasons why designers such as Marcel Breuer and others at Bauhaus worked with simple yet functional designs, because it wasn’t the time of luxury and if someone bought a piece of furniture it sure wasn’t going to be for decoration but for purpose.

While I was going through Frame Magazine for another assignment’s research I found this Hotel in Barcelona called The Renaissance Barcelona Fira Hotel where the chairs and tables of the dining area are very similar to the style Marcel Breuer had made popular. This hotel is the work of architects Jean Nouvel and Ribas José.

1920 prohibition and women right to vote

1921 extreme inflation

1925 Wassily chair

1926 woman swims English channel

1927 Lindbergh Flies Solo Across the Atlantic

1928 first mickey mouse cartoons

1928 chair with armrests and cantilever

1929 great depression

1935 emigrated to london

Design Museum. November 2005. MARCEL BREUER - Architect + Furniture Designer (1902-1981)[online] Available at: http://designmuseum.org/design/marcel-breuer  [Accessed on 30^th December 2013]

Jennifer Rosenberg. 2013. 1920s Timeline - Timeline of the 20th Century. [online] Available at: http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1920timeline.htm  [Accessed on 30^th December 2013]

Nicole Copello. 2011. Extreme Inflation in Germany [online] Available at: http://from-nineteen-eighteen.blogspot.com/2011/08/extreme-inflation-in-germany_5656.html  [Accessed on 30^th December 2013]

The Herb Museum. Prepare for Prohibition - Pither & Leiser (1917). [online] Available at: http://www.herbmuseum.ca/content/prepare-prohibition-pither-leiser-1917  [Accessed on 30^th December 2013]

[online] Available at: http://www.design-technology.org/MarcelBreuer.htm [Accessed on 30^th December 2013]