The S 64 Atelier: a classic starts to move
Design: Marcel Breuer, around 1928, S 64 Atelier: Thonet with Christophe Marchand, 2019 The working world is changing – home offices and studio offices are places where mobility, flexibility, and communication play a decisive role, places where furniture classics that comply with modern lifestyles also have a place. For this purpose, Thonet makes an icon of classic furniture design mobile – designed around 1928 and valid to this day in its formal language: the chair S 64 by Marcel Breuer. At imm cologne 2019, Thonet presents this famous cantilever chair as a swivel chair with a central leg and castors. As S 64 Atelier, this classic with a new function can be used in home offices as well as in working and communication zones of modern offices. The S 64 Atelier continues a concept of Breuer; in the historic Thonet tubular steel catalogue from 1935, other tubular steel chairs with a swivel frame that combined the design of a cantilever chair with the function of a swivel chair are attributed to him, among others.
The versions in detail
Available with five-star aluminium base on castors, chrome-plated or powder-coated, or with four-star base on gliders. Wooden parts in stained beech, stretched with wicker cane and transparent, stable supporting plastic mesh, or with netting; alternatively also available as an upholstered version covered with leather or fabric.
These designs are probably the most famous and most-produced tubular steel classics. Their most important property is the sophisticated constructive form and ingenious aesthetic combination of tubular steel, wood, and cane work. The design goes back to Breuer's productive years in Berlin from 1928 until 1931 during which, after leaving the Bauhaus, he worked as an independent architect and interior designer and realised a number of grand interiors and designed numerous pieces of furniture. Thonet has been producing these models since 1930. Due to the aesthetic reduction and clarity, they are suitable for many uses: conference rooms, waiting areas, restaurants, and homes.
