> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.unknowndivide.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Wassily Chair Explained: Marcel Breuer's Tubular Steel Icon - URL: https://www.unknowndivide.com/wassily-chair-marcel-breuer-explained/ - Published: 2023-07-11T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T12:19:52.000Z - Description: In 1925 a young Bauhaus carpenter stripped the heavy club chair down to a frame of bent steel tube and taut slings. The Wassily chair still looks radical a century later. Here is its story, how it is made and how to spot the real thing. - Author: unknowndivide staff - Tags: Design *Unknowndivide may earn a commission from purchases made through links in this post.* Picture a traditional club chair: deep, padded, heavy, upholstered on every surface. Now remove everything except the lines that define it and replace the padding with tight bands of leather or canvas stretched across a frame of shiny steel tube. That is the Wassily chair, designed by Marcel Breuer in 1925 and still one of the most recognizable pieces of modern furniture in the world. It sits in museums and in living rooms, and it looks as much like a drawing of a chair as a chair itself. ## What is the Wassily chair? The Wassily chair, sometimes called the Model B3 after its original catalog number, is a lounge chair built from a continuous logic of bent tubular steel. Seat, back and armrests are slings of leather or canvas pulled taut between the tubes, so you sit suspended in the frame rather than sinking into cushions. From the side it reads as a set of interlocking rectangles and planes floating in space. There is very little actual chair there, and that was the point. Breuer later described being very much engaged in the transparency of the form. He wanted a chair you could see through, light enough to move easily and honest about how it was put together. ## Marcel Breuer and the Bauhaus Breuer was born in Hungary in 1902 and arrived at the Bauhaus, the German school of art, architecture and design, as a young student in the early 1920s. He trained in the carpentry workshop and soon ran it. The school wanted to bring art and industry together and design objects that could be made in factories rather than by hand one at a time, which our guide to [the Bauhaus](https://www.unknowndivide.com/bauhaus-explained/) explores in depth. Breuer's furniture became one of the clearest expressions of that idea. Knoll, which holds the production rights Breuer granted, notes on its [Marcel Breuer designer page](https://www.knoll.com/designers/marcel-breuer?ref=unknowndivide.com) that he went on to become an architect as celebrated as he was as a furniture designer, with buildings including the original Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. ## The bicycle connection The story behind the chair is one of the best in design history. Breuer had bought a bicycle and was struck by its handlebars. He learned that the tubular steel used for bicycle frames could be bent like macaroni, as Knoll puts it in Breuer's own phrase, yet stayed light and strong. If steel tube could hold a rider's weight, it could hold a sitter's. He worked with metal fabricators to bend tube into a chair frame, which was new for domestic furniture at the time. Tubular steel solved several problems at once. It was strong without being bulky, it could be produced in quantity, and it gave the chair an airy, almost weightless look. Within a few years tubular steel furniture by Breuer and others, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, had spread across modern interiors in Europe. ## Why is it called the Wassily chair? The name came decades later. The painter Wassily Kandinsky taught at the Bauhaus at the same time and admired an early version of the chair. Breuer made one for Kandinsky's quarters at the school. When an Italian manufacturer reintroduced the design in the 1960s, it was given the name Wassily in Kandinsky's honor, and the name stuck. Knoll later took over production and has made it ever since. ## How the Wassily chair is made A genuine Wassily chair from Knoll uses polished chrome tubular steel as standard, with slings in a choice of materials. According to the [Knoll Wassily chair page](https://www.knoll.com/product/wassily-chair?ref=unknowndivide.com), options include natural cotton canvas, vegetable tanned and aniline dyed belting leather and cowhide. The chair stands about 28¾ inches high, 31 inches wide and 27 inches deep, weighs about 25 pounds and arrives fully assembled. Each frame is stamped with the Knoll logo and Breuer's signature, which is the simplest way to confirm authenticity. The belting leather version is the classic choice. It is thick, firm leather of the kind once used for industrial drive belts, and it develops a patina over the years. Canvas gives a lighter, more casual look and costs less. ## Is the Wassily chair comfortable? More than it looks. The slings flex slightly and hold you in a reclined position that suits reading or conversation. It is not a chair for curling up in, and it is firmer than an upholstered lounge chair. If deep comfort is the priority, an [Eames lounge chair](https://www.unknowndivide.com/eames-lounge-chair-explained/) is a very different experience. The Wassily is about posture, lightness and the way it changes a room. ## Original vs replica The Wassily has been copied relentlessly, and replicas are everywhere. The differences tend to show in the details: thinner or lower grade tube, weaker welds, thin leather that stretches and sags, and inaccurate proportions. A licensed chair also carries the maker's mark and signature stamp. If you buy vintage, look for those markings and check the slings for tears and the chrome for pitting. Older slings can be replaced, so a sound frame with worn leather can still be a good find. ## Related design icons The Wassily belongs to a family of twentieth century chairs that rethought what seating could be. The [Panton chair](https://www.unknowndivide.com/panton-chair-explained/) did it with a single molded piece of plastic, while the [Wishbone chair](https://www.unknowndivide.com/wishbone-chair-ch24-explained/) took a gentler, handcrafted route in wood and paper cord. Together they show how much variety came out of the same modern idea. ## Where to buy **Shop the Wassily chair** [Wassily chair at Knoll](https://www.knoll.com/product/wassily-chair?ref=unknowndivide.com) [Marcel Breuer designs at Knoll](https://www.knoll.com/designers/marcel-breuer?ref=unknowndivide.com) For more chairs, lamps and objects with a story, explore our [design icons hub](https://www.unknowndivide.com/design-icons/).