Wassily Chair

The Wassily Chair, originally designated Model B3, was designed by Marcel Breuer in 1925–1926 while he was a young master at the Bauhaus in Dessau. Inspired by the bent tubular steel of his Adler bicycle, Breuer created a club chair that replaced traditional upholstered bulk with a skeletal framework of chrome-plated steel tubing and taut leather or canvas straps. Artist Wassily Kandinsky, who admired the chair in Breuer's studio, later lent his name to the design when it was reintroduced by Gavina and subsequently Knoll. The Wassily Chair was revolutionary in its time and remains startling in its modernity nearly a century later. Its transparent, open construction revealed the chair's structure rather than hiding it, fundamentally changing how designers thought about seating. The interplay of rigid steel and yielding leather creates both visual tension and surprising comfort. Today it furnishes living rooms, studies, and offices worldwide, serving as both a functional seat and a sculptural declaration of modernist principles.