THE ARCHITECT OF DESIGN IN HARMONY WITH LIGHT AND SHADOW
Marcel Breuer was born on 21 May 1902 in the city of Pecs, Hungary. The designer, who made important contributions to 20th century architecture, stood out especially for his strong aesthetic sensibility. He had an innate talent for drawing, and since he wanted to pursue art as a profession, he studied at the Bauhaus design school in Germany.
His career and the American years
He continued his artistic success at this school and graduated, after which he worked as a furniture instructor, freelance architect and designer. Marcel Breuer pursued these occupations until settling in England, then moved to the United States in 1937, where he achieved his greatest successes. In his New York architecture office he developed a new aesthetic movement, approaching concrete in a very different way through the use of light and shadow. Grounding his work in constant innovation and an original design philosophy, he produced unique works, and this is the most important reason he became a world-famous designer.
The Wassily chair design
The legendary “Wassily” chair design belongs to Marcel Breuer. His designs left their mark on their era and have not lost their significance today, the S-shaped chairs being one example. In the 1930s he designed many products in aluminum and wood, then settled in the United States, concentrated on architecture, and built houses that count among the most striking, most aesthetic and most important works of the modernist approach of his era.
Important buildings and works
To mention a few of his works that retain their importance today: the Hagerty House in Massachusetts, the Breuer House, the Grieco House, the Hunter College Library in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Office Building, the New York University dormitory, and in other cities the Litchfield High School, the UNESCO headquarters building in Paris, the IBM research center in France, the New England Merchants Bank, the Flaine ski resort, Roxbury High School, the Australian Embassy building in Paris, and St. John’s Abbey Church are just some of the magnificent buildings Marcel Breuer designed.
Until his death in New York in 1981, Marcel Breuer strove to create products for humanity that were useful, practical, functional and aesthetically considered.
