img(height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2939831959404383&ev=PageView&noscript=1")

From Bauhaus to greenhouse

Words:
Jan-Carlos Kucharek

True to the ethos that ‘nothing is so good it can’t be better’, furniture company Thonet has released its classic designs for Mart Stam and Marcel Breuer’s tubular steel chairs and tables in, yes, seven colours. But before you join SOB (Save Our Breuers), buy them and get them re-chromed, consider that the firm looked to Bauhaus master Johannes Itten’s colour circle ‘as orientation’. Quite what the Mazdaznan-cult-worshipping vegetarian Expressionist would have made of this we’ll never know, but his resistance to Gropius’ aesthetics of mass-production prompted his resignation. Perhaps knowing that Breuer’s chrome is now being dipped in his ‘chocolate brown’, revenge is indeed sweet?

 

Latest

Design a creative installation for an outer London streetscape, lead the restoration of four war memorial sites, bid for a spot on a schools construction framework - some of the latest architecture competitions and contracts from across the industry

Latest: Public realm, Morden

At Stockholm’s spherical Avicii Arena, a massive new internal roof of folding acoustic panels enables the venue to rapidly transform in response to its music and sports events schedule

A massive new foldaway internal roof enables the venue to rapidly transform in response to its events schedule

Since setting up almost impulsively during the pandemic, Artefact's founders Daniel Marmot and Benedetta Rogers have purposefully focused on the craft of construction

Emerging during the pandemic, the practice has purposefully focused on the craft of construction

The path to implementing sustainable building practices is fraught with difficulties – but in the struggle towards net zero, architects have a crucial role, says Laura Carrara-Cagni

In the struggle towards net zero, architects have a crucial role, says Laura Carrara-Cagni

In east London, dRMM's Wick Lane development blends industrial and residential space. Its roof design and materials, which reference Hackney Wick's heritage, create both variety and coherence, explains senior associate Will Howard

dRMM's east London Wick Lane development blends industrial and residential space, and references local heritage via its roof forms