backrest chair breuer b40

The B40 thrives on small details that transform its cubic form into elegance. Here, the geometry follows the body. The backrest, for example, is slightly bent backward at lumbar level and ends in a curve that makes the chair easily transportable. Perhaps not structurally necessary, 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 – rather than a chair with high practical value.

With his ingenious idea of applying the lightweight construction of bicycles to furniture design, Marcel Breuer (1902–1981) opened up entirely new avenues for the furniture industry. "My sudden inspiration, which led me while cycling via the material of bicycle handlebars to the design of tubular furniture – quite unexpectedly, it spread throughout the entire world," wrote Marcel Breuer in 1937. His tubular steel furniture became the epitome of elegance and lightness in a world that was on the move – and thus in many ways similar to ours. This impulse can be physically experienced in the B40.