The Hungarian designer and architect Marcel Breuer was the first to design and make tubular steel furniture. He made his first example of tubular steel furniture, the B3 club chair, in 1925, during his time at the Bauhaus, and then further developed it in the following years and created other types. Tubular steel furniture was originally shocking at its time, but soon became a necessary accessory for modern interiors and inspired numerous other designers, including great names such as the architects Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. There were also other Hungarians who designed tubular steel furniture in the 1930s, such as Lajos Kozma and István Bakos.
Tubular steel furniture plays a central role in the opening exhibition at the Rózsi Walter Villa, which focuses on modern architecture and home life. The exhibition opens on the 18th of May. The tubular steel furniture set that will soon be on display at the show is from the estate of the villa’s designer, József Fischer. The two chairs are examples of so-called cantilever chairs based on the continuous line of the tubular steel frame without any supports in the back. These are the B33 (B for Breuer) side chair and its variant with arms, the B34, manufactured by the Thonet company. A tubular steel drafting table is also part of the set, which presumably was not designed by Breuer, but instead by József Fischer and was produced in a small Hungarian workshop. The desk and the chairs were a part of the furnishings of the office jointly run by Breuer, Fischer, and Farkas Molnár in 1934–1935. Breuer was thinking about moving back home at that time, but his diploma from the Bauhaus was not recognized as an architectural degree in Hungary. Due to this, he was not made a member of the chamber of architects, and so could not pursue his work as a private designer. Following this, he continued his career in England and then in the United States, where he became a world-famous architect.
The Breuer-designed tubular steel furniture remained in the possession of József Fischer and is used today by the family of his grandchild. They represent the modernism that is still with us. The cantilever chairs later marketed under the Cesca name (after Breuer’s adopted daughter, Francesca) with a cane seat and back, as well as replicas of this, are considered design classics and are still popular items in present-day interior design. The tubular steel chairs in the exhibition are mass produced pieces similar to any replica, but Breuer himself once sat on precisely these chairs. Furthermore, we can speculate that Fischer may have drawn up the designs for the Rózsi Walter Villa on this tubular steel drafting table.
Ágnes Anna Sebestyén
photographs: Éva Wachsler
