Two Chairs
When observing architecture and design trends, looking at the objects we use in our daily lives often provides a vignette of the values, goals, and aesthetics associated with a certain time and place. The chair is perhaps the most ubiquitous of these objects. Looking at a chair’s form, composition, material, and ornamentation not only communicates information about the design style associated with it, but also conveys philosophical and cultural contexts which surround the piece.
The 1920s marked many changes in public thought and daily life, many of which brought on because of the embrace of industrialization and rejection of the past. One of the first places that encouraged this reorientation towards the future in design was the Bauhaus school in Germany. The designs of the Bauhaus were motivated by a focus on the inherent qualities of materials and how they work with the programmatic needs of the design. Pushing the limits of what a material can do, and experimentation with industrial production methods characterized much of the work coming out of the Bauhaus. While a student at the Bauhaus school, Marcel Breuer experimented with material and construction of furniture– particularly with the use of tubular steel and industrial textiles.
The first example of Breuer using bent tubular steel was in his design of the Club Chair (B3). When the Bauhaus was moving their campus from Weimar to Dessau in 1925, Breuer was tasked with creating furniture pieces for the school’s new construction. The furniture needed to be easy to move, clean, and reproduce. Development of the Club Chair (B3) began with this purpose, and was conceptualized with the visual reference of the bicycle. The bicycle is able to support the human body by using minimal materials, and relies on the intrinsic properties of tubular steel to perform its function. Through experimentation with bending tubular steel, the club chair is abstracted and filtered through a geometric, minimal, and functional approach. In addition to using tubular steel as a structural component, Breuer continued his obsession with minimizing material use with employing textile slings– strong Eisengarn textile, or canvas in the more modern rendition– which support the human body in a seated position without relying on traditional methods of carpentry and upholstery. These material elements come together in a connected and cantilevered form, which is visually and physically much lighter than its heavily upholstered predecessor.
Erich Consemuller. Untitled (Woman [Lis Beyer or Ise Gropius] in B3 club chair by Marcel Breuer wearing a mask by Oskar Schlemmer and a dress in fabric designed by Beyer). C. 1926
The Club Chair (B3) marks a distinctive before and after in the Modernist movement, and changed the trajectory of future industrial and architectural design. Its chrome-plated bent tubular steel became a mainstay of not only the work coming out of the Bauhaus, but also work produced by the Modernist movement as a whole. Through larger scale production with manufacturer Thonet, bent tubular steel was cemented as one of the most accessible and functional materials for use in furniture design. As Modernism progressed, the designs being produced transitioned to reflect the values of the changing culture. The closure of the Bauhaus by Nazis in 1933 forced the flight of many Bauhaus students and professors, furthering the spread of Modernism and expanding its scope. In the United States, Modernist ideals started blending with American vernacular architecture, which emphasized a connection to nature and applied fluid shapes and natural materials to the more linear and geometric Modern designs coming from Europe.
In the 1940s, Charles and Ray Eames met at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, an American school which brought together avant-garde artists and designers much in the same way as the Bauhaus school. The Eameses met through Ray’s assistance and Charles’s participation in the 1941 “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. Growing out of Marcel Breuer’s prior experimentation with material, the Eameses became obsessed with plywood, and exploring its potential as a material for furniture production. Charles, who was an architect, worked to mold plywood so that it could curve in two different directions. Inspired by the use of plywood in this way, Ray experimented in shaping plywood into more complex and sculptural forms. Employing the “Eames Process,” a homemade machine called the “Kazaam” created sheets of plywood while forming the compound curves. As World War 2 unfolded, the Eameses worked to engineer molded plywood for use in the manufacture of plywood leg splints for the US Navy. Designing out of necessity, they learned about the properties of the material, and how they could be applied to address the programmatic needs of furniture and the human form. With this as the primary goal, the Eameses set out to design a chair of molded plywood which would effectively and comfortably support the human form.
Building on the ideals set forth by Breuer and early European Modernists, the Eameses anchored their work in the realities of daily life and incorporated natural elements and fluid forms associated with Organic design. The 1946 design of the DCM (Dining Chair Metal), was the culmination of the Eameses experimentation. Like Breuer’s Club Chair (B3), the DCM’s form follows the direction of program and material, but the focus of its design is less on efficiency, and more on support and comfort. Bent tubular steel is used to support the frame of the chair, employing its inherent strength, lightness, and durability. However, where the Club Chair (B3) uses strong, industrial fabric at its seat and back, the DCM utilizes molded plywood, which retains heat and can be shaped to fit the curves of the human body. Rubber shock mounts are connectors between elements, allowing for movement and flexibility that responds to natural movements of the human form. Each of these pieces comes together to make an efficient and durable chair which responds to human movement and follows the body’s contours.
Charles Eames with DCM. Ray Eames.
The design of both Marcel Breuer’s Club Chair (B3) and the Ray and Charles Eames’s DCM (Dining Chair Metal) exemplify the constant drive of Modernists to push the limits of production, and to create pieces which resolve design problems in effective and experimental ways. During the 1920s in Germany, industrialization and mass manufacturing made efficiency the primary goal of design. Marcel Breuer and the Bauhaus centered design on doing the most with the least, and experimenting with material and construction to meet functional goals. Working during the 1940s in the United States, the designs of the Eameses also carried a focus on maximizing the possible use of materials, but held more of an emphasis on natural materials and forms. Both of these pieces follow the Modernist ideal of form as a reaction to functional needs, manipulating materials to express their intrinsic qualities and serve the overall purpose of the design. Reflection on these two chairs makes evident the goals of Modernism, as well as the ways that time and location alter the lens through which these goals are achieved.
Club Chair (B3) and DCM (Dining Chair Metal) in pen.
