Breuer, Marcel (Lajos) (1902-1981)

Hungarian-born US architect and designer. He studied and taught at the Bauhaus school in Germany. His tubular steel chair, known as the Wassily chair (1925), was the first of its kind. He moved to England, then to the USA, where he was in partnership with Walter Gropius (1937-40). His buildings show an affinity with natural materials, as exemplified in the Bijenkorf, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (with Elzas; 1953).

Born in Pécs, Hungary, he became director of the department of furniture design at the Bauhaus in 1924. In this field he explored both new methods, using standard modular units as a basis for design, and new materials, such as tubular steel frames covered by laminated plywood. From 1935 he worked in London and in 1937 followed Gropius to America, becoming associate-professor under him at Harvard as well as his partner in practice. From 1946 he practised in New York. He was joint architect (with Nervi and Zehrfuss) for the UNESCO Building in Paris (1953-58), and designed St John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota (1953-61); the Litchfield High School Gymnasium (1954-56); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1963-66); and the Housing and Urban Development Headquarters, Washington (1963-68).