Breuer Armchair

Marcel Breuer was a leading furniture designer and architect of the 20th century and probably Embru’s best-known design partner. From 1920 to 1924 he studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar and, following the move to Dessau in 1925, took over as head of the furniture workshop there. Following his career as a designer in Germany, Switzerland and England, he emigrated to the USA in 1937, where he taught architecture at Harvard University in Cambridge. At the same time, he ran an architectural practice with Walter Gropius until 1941.

In 1946 he moved to New York, where in 1956 he founded the practice Marcel Breuer Associates Architects, which realised numerous major projects in the USA and Europe. Marcel Breuer first came into contact with Embru in 1931. The earliest drawings of Breuer’s standard cabinets and shelving units date from that time; these were produced and marketed from 1932 onwards. These were followed by various furniture designs, such as a range of innovative aluminium furniture which he developed with Embru and with which he won major competitions.

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