Breuer

Hardcover, 21 x 26 cm, 0.57 kg, 96 pages

ISBN 978-3-8365-4469-6
Edition: German

ISBN 978-3-8365-4473-3
Edition: English

Exhilarated in the modern age

Elegant steel and lively concrete

In 1956, Time magazine called him one of the key "shapers of the 20th century". To this day, Marcel Breuer (1902–1981) – Bauhaus graduate and lecturer, emigrant from Nazi Germany, professor at Harvard and internationally renowned architect – is regarded by architects and designers alike as a beacon of modernism. With his famous tubular steel chairs, which are still in production today, he reinvented sitting and was already considered a design god before he turned to architecture. Breuer's buildings, including the UNESCO building in Paris and the Whitney Museum in New York, are less well-known but are every bit as good as his furniture icons. His innovative single-family homes, which distinguish between semi-public and private spaces, are also considered outstanding designs.

In this introduction, we chronicle Breuer's entire career through some of his most influential projects and ideas, from his signature tubular steel furniture and famous two-cell houses to the large-scale projects that pioneered Brutalism.

The author

Arnt Cobbers studied art history, history and musicology, did his doctorate on medieval church building and lives in Berlin as a freelance author. He has worked as an architecture critic and has written numerous books on Berlin architecture. His monographs on Erich Mendelsohn and Marcel Breuer have been published by TASCHEN.

The Publisher

Peter Gössel runs an agency for museum and exhibition design. For TASCHEN, he has edited monographs on Julius Shulman, RM Schindler, John Lautner, and Richard Neutra, as well as several architecture titles in the Small Series.