Task 2 - Bauhaus - Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer was an architect and a designer who graduated from Bauhaus carpentry workshop in 1924.After he was in Paris he returned to Bauhaus as the master of carpentry workshop but with occasionally use of steel.

Marcel Breuer Wassily chair

Breuer started the use of steel tubing

Breuer is famous for his contribution to Bauhaus and found use of new techniques in existing material such as steel tubing. Inspired by bicycle frame Marcel Breuer started experimenting with steel tubing to be used for his seating design. For us no a days chairs made from steel tubing is very common as it is commonly used in chairs and other furniture especially that which is being manufactured in mass production. One of his famous product was the "Wassily" chair. It was manufactured from bent steel tubes and leather. For the time this was something different from what the people normally were used to see. Later from International Style, Le Corbusier produced something very similar to the Wassily chair.

Le Corbusier chair

During the years of there were other movements in design that were going on such as De Stijl, Art Deco, Futurism and Modernism. Some of these movements are similar. For example the work produced in Art Deco could have been the base for architecture developed from architects of Bauhaus such as Walter Gropius and later inspired the work of architects such as Le Corbusier.

Bauhaus started one year after the end of World War I.

Bauhaus

During the time of Bauhaus and Marcel Breuer , the world was going through some tough changes. In America the Great Depression started in 1929. During the Great Depression unemployment dominated America which brought great poverty in the nation. Illegal crossing from america was very common in that period of time as the population was trying to seek for new live in other countries.

Unemployment during the great depression

In Europe during the time which Bauhaus operated, some difficult time was coming in the face of Europeans as the war was approaching. 3 powerful figures dominated the scene as Mussolini rose in power in Italy during the 1922 followed by Stalin in the Soviet Union in 1924. The change in Germany that effected Bauhaus directly was the rise in power of Adolf Hitler. The Nazi force Bauhaus to close down in 1933 .

Adolf Hitler

An invention which occurred under the Nazi with the financial help of Hitler himself was the build of the first missile. Adolf Hitler financed this project as his idea was to bombard London without using any aircraft. the plan was to issue the strike from France without the need of any plane. The development which was done while inventing the missile helped the Americans later on in time to win the space race by putting man on the moon. This was achived after the inventor of the V-2 Rocket missile was captured by the American and was commisioned by the American military to further develop the rocket for them. He was later given the chance to put his knowledge and expertise in the design of the Apollo 11 space shuttle which transported men to the moon. This gave him the opportunity to live his livelong dream which was to design the rocket which takes the first men on the moon.

Reference:

Marcel Breuer: "Wassily" chair (1988.256) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2014. Marcel Breuer: "Wassily" chair (1988.256) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1988.256. [Accessed 04 January 2014].

Master. 2014. Master. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.marcelbreuer.org/Biography.html. [Accessed 04 January 2014].

Marcel Breuer / Designing Modern Britain - Design Museum Exhibition : - Design/Designer Information. 2014. Marcel Breuer / Designing Modern Britain - Design Museum Exhibition : - Design/Designer Information. [ONLINE] Available at: http://designmuseum.org/design/marcel-breuer. [Accessed 04 January 2014].

Marcel Breuer. 2014. Marcel Breuer. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.design-technology.org/MarcelBreuer.htm. [Accessed 04 January 2014].