Modern lines set in steel: how Bauhaus influenced furniture design

It was exactly 100 years ago that the Bauhaus art school moved from Weimar to Dessau. This was also the time when designers like Marcel Breuer and Mart Stam, who each had stints teaching at the Bauhaus, were experimenting with tubular steel. Up until this point, tubular steel had only found its way into functional furniture for hospitals and the transport sector. Marcel Breuer was the first to use it to create furniture for the home. Today, when we think of tubular steel, we have an almost automatic association with the cantilever chair. It all began, however, with the B 9 H stool, which is still part of the Thonet portfolio today, 100 years later. Originally designed for the Bauhaus canteen in Dessau, the stool soon evolved into the B 9 nesting table. Thonet’s B 9 collection embodies the company’s aesthetic and historical connection to the Bauhaus like no other. The minimalist shape of the tables and the stool, each consisting of one continuous piece of tubular steel and a panel, ensures an uninterrupted line of sight through the room. To save space, the B 9 nesting tables can be pushed into each other. The original designs live on today in contemporary models and reinterpretations from Thonet, such as the S 243 by Frank Rettenbacher or Jil Sander’s personal redesign of this classic Bauhaus piece in her JS . THONET line.

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