Saturday, March 10, 2007

Marcel Lajos Breuer (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. 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.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 USA.

- B35 chair, - cesca arm chair, - cesca chair

- Wassily chair, - display tables

- armchair & sofa

- bookshelves, - tables

- side tables

Friday, March 9, 2007

Le Corbusier. Charles - Edouard Jeanneret, who chose to be known as Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965), was a French Swiss, born architect and writer, who is famous for his contributions to what now is called modernism, or the International Style. He was a pioneer in theoretical studies of modern design and was dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities. His career spanned five decades, with his iconic buildings constructed throughout central Europe, India, Russia, and one structure each in North and South America. He was also an urban planner, painter, sculptor, writer, and modern furniture designer.
In his early years he frequently would escape the somewhat provincial atmosphere of his hometown by travelling around Europe. About 1907 he travelled to Paris, where he found work in the office of Auguste Perret, the French pioneer in reinforced concrete. Between October 1910 and March 1911 he worked near Berlin for the renowned architect Peter Behrens, where he met Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and became fluent in German. Both of these experiences proved influential in his later career. Later in 1911 he would journey to the Balkans and visit Greece and Turkey, filling sketchbooks with renderings of what he saw, including many famous sketches of the Parthenon, whose forms he would later praise in his work Vers une architecture (1923).

- basculant sling, - pony chair

- sofa, - grand comfort lounge chair


- 7 swivel arm chair, - chaise lounge

- small table, - table

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868 - 1928). Born in Glasgow in 1868 and started his architecture career at 15 years old after he was apprenticed to an architect, called John Hutchinson. Mackintosh worked for Hutchinson between 1884 and 1889. He also attended classes at the Glasgow School of Art where he met Margaret MacDonald (later became his wife), Frances MacDonald and Herbert McNair. The group became known as "The Four" and they staged exhibitions together, which helped to raise Mackintosh's profile. Mackintosh has a very distinctive architectural and interior style. There is a definite modernity to his style but also a strong Scottish tradition combined with Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts influences. The Mackintosh style combines sharp right angles with subtle curves and his work is peppered with decorative floral motifs, the most famous being the Mackintosh Rose. The majority of his work centered on Glasgow and coincided with the economic boom at the turn of the century when Glasgow was transformed into a major industrial city. The increased wealth of the city provided Mackintosh with many varied commissions and his work can be easily divided into 3 key areas of interest: public buildings, private buildings and tea rooms. He developed his own style: a contrast between strong right angles and floral-inspired decorative motifs with subtle curves, e.g. the Mackintosh Rose motif, along with some references to traditional Scottish architecture. The project that helped make his international reputation was the Glasgow School of Art (1897-1909). He died in 1928 of throat cancer.

- argyle chair - hill house chair - side chair

- table - (Folding) - small table

- side table