backrest chair b40 bauhaus original model

The B40 thrives on small details that transform its cubic form into elegance. Here, geometry follows the body. For example, the backrest is slightly bent backward at the height of the lumbar spine and ends in a curve that makes the chair easily portable. Constructively perhaps unnecessary, but highly aesthetic is the double bracing at the front, which stiffens the chair and sets a rhythm in the space, as if Breuer had created crystalline music here – and not just a chair with high practical value.

With his brilliant idea of transferring the lightweight construction of bicycles to furniture design, Marcel Breuer (1902–1981) opened up completely new paths for the furniture industry. "My sudden inspiration, which came to me while cycling about the material of the bicycle handlebar leading to the construction of the tubular furniture – unexpectedly it spread all over the world," wrote Marcel Breuer in 1937. His tubular steel furniture became the epitome of elegance and lightness in a world on the move – one that in many ways resembles ours. This impulse can be physically experienced in the B40.