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Bauhaus classics, reframed

Knoll draws on Bauhaus ideals to reframe four iconic tubular steel collections by Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in a palette of ultra-matte colour.

Four celebrated furniture collections by Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe—the Wassily Chair, Laccio Tables, MR Chairs, and MR Table—have been re-envisioned by Knoll in three ultra-matte colours: an archival dark red, white, and onyx. Well-known for their polished steel frames, the tubular steel designs take on new identities in the saturated finishes, their iconic forms perceived in surprising new ways.

Roots in the Bauhaus

The furniture in the new Knoll release was originally designed between 1925 and 1928 when Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe were active at the Bauhaus—the revolutionary art and design school founded by architect Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany.

The Bauhaus sought to unite the creative endeavours of art, design, and industry until they became, as Gropius described it, “inseparable components of a new architecture.” The school—repeatedly upended by political and wartime upheaval across Europe—opened its doors in 1919 and closed them in 1933. During this short period, the roots of Modernism were established by the pioneering designers who dared to push the limits of material, form and function across architecture, textile, and object design.

Marcel Breuer: A Pioneer in Material Innovation

A champion of the Modern movement and protégé of Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer is equally renowned for his achievements in architecture and furniture design. His work embodies the driving objective of the Bauhaus: to reconcile art and industry.

Breuer was still an apprentice at the Bauhaus when his experiments with new materials began to revolutionise interiors. He was the first to use tubular steel in his furniture designs after famously becoming inspired by the construction of his own bicycle. His resulting works—today known as the Wassily Chair and Laccio Tables—remain among the most identifiable pieces of modern furniture.

As political tensions of the 1930s escalated, many Bauhaus luminaries fled Germany. Gropius and Breuer both immigrated to the United States. Gropius taught at Harvard University and opened an architecture practice. Marcel Breuer, having shifted his full focus to architecture, joined Gropius’s studio in Cambridge. There, the two would mentor a junior architect named Florence Knoll.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: Modernism’s Maestro

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe—Mies, familiarly—borders on the mythic in the world of architecture. His ‘less-is-more’ design philosophy is heralded as the gold standard by generations of architects.

Mies first gained attention in Germany for his residential projects and visionary proposals for glass and steel skyscrapers. In 1929, he and Lilly Reich designed the German Pavilion for the Industrial Exposition in Barcelona. The pavilion debuted site-specific chairs for the King and Queen of Spain—Barcelona Chairs—and is widely considered a defining moment of Modernism.

In the 1920s, Mies van der Rohe was a pivotal figure in a circle of avant-garde architects and artists linked to the Bauhaus. Inspired by Marcel Breuer’s pioneering work with tubular steel, Mies adopted the material to develop his MR Chairs and MR Tables—the first pieces in his celebrated MR Collection.

Mies became the third and final director of the Bauhaus, leading the school until its closure by the Nazi regime in 1933. Three years later, he accepted a position as head of the architecture department at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). A young Florence Knoll, upon graduating from Cranbrook Academy of Art and the tutelage of Eliel Saarinen, chose IIT for her architecture studies. Mies would become an important and enduring mentor.

Colour and Perception

Bauhaus designers viewed colour as a potent tool in shaping spatial perception, considering it an integral element rather than mere decoration. They often explored the psychological effects of colours and their interactions, with special interest in white, black, and primary values. The approach was both artistic and scientific, aiming to understand how colour could influence perception, mood, and the spatial dynamics of an environment.

The colours in the Knoll release honour the Bauhaus ideals from which the tubular steel collections emerged. White and onyx black were integral to the Bauhaus aesthetic, prized for their distinct abilities to absorb or reflect light, enhance geometric forms, and define edges. The dark red finish was inspired by an archival example of an MR Chair uncovered by the Knoll design team. The saturated, ultra-matte palette is a contemporary reframing that echoes the Bauhaus exploration of colour, form, and materiality.

The Knoll Connection

Florence Knoll, a seminal figure in American design, was responsible for weaving Bauhaus principles into the fabric of Knoll. Studying architecture under Mies at IIT and interning with Breuer and Gropius in Cambridge, Florence absorbed the Bauhaus idea of gesamkunstwerk, or ‘total work of art’—the ethos of integrating art, architecture, and design into a cohesive whole.

The relationships between Florence Knoll and her trusted mentors continued well into her career. After Florence and husband Hans formed Knoll, Inc., the legendary designers entrusted the company with their designs, confident that they would be produced with the utmost precision and care.

A Contemporary Point of View

Today, the reframing of classic Bauhaus collections in ultra-matte colour not only honours the legacy of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, it reinvigorates their designs for a new generation. The application of saturated colour to these timeless pieces affirms the enduring relevance of Bauhaus principles in contemporary design. It underscores the school’s commitment to exploring the interplay between art, design, and industry—a vision that remains as compelling today as it was nearly a century ago.

By revisiting these iconic designs with a fresh palette, Knoll invites us to engage with them anew, appreciating their historical significance while recognising their capacity to adapt and inspire in modern contexts. The Wassily Chair, MR Chair, MR Tables, and Laccio Tables—for the first time, commercially available in dark red, white, and onyx—continue to embody the timeless spirit of the Bauhaus through a decidedly contemporary lens.