MODERN LINES IN TUBULAR STEEL: 100 YEARS OF BAUHAUS INFLUENCE ON THONET

Images courtesy of Thonet

From Bauhaus to Today: Thonet’s Tubular Steel Icons Endure

In 1925, when the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, something revolutionary was brewing in the workshops. Designers like Marcel Breuer and Mart Stam began experimenting with tubular steel—a material until then reserved for hospitals, bicycles, and trains. Breuer, inspired by the curve of his bicycle handlebars, was the first to imagine it as furniture for the home.

The result was the B 9 stool, designed for the Bauhaus canteen. Soon it evolved into the B 9 nesting tables, a set of minimalist forms defined by a single bent tube and a wooden panel. Lightweight, space-saving, and radical in its modernity, the B 9 set the tone for what would become a new chapter in design history.

Presented by Magran Living

By the time the Deutscher Werkbund unveiled tubular steel furniture at the 1927 Weissenhof Estate exhibition in Stuttgart, the world took notice. Compared to the heavy wooden furniture of the German Gründerzeit, these pieces were light, airy, and open—embodying what Breuer described as “furniture drawn into the room, obscuring neither movement nor view.”

Thonet quickly recognized the potential. In 1929, the company acquired Breuer’s firm Standard Möbel and began producing his designs, from the B 9 to the iconic S 32/S 64 cantilever chairs. By the 1930s, Thonet had become the largest manufacturer of tubular steel furniture worldwide, a legacy that continues today.

A century later, Thonet still reinterprets these Bauhaus icons for contemporary living. Jil Sander, with her JS . THONET line, brought fashion’s precision and restraint to the S 64 and B 97 tables, experimenting with matte nickel and glossy titanium finishes. Designer Frank Rettenbacher followed with the S 243 chair, a playful blend of tubular steel and colourful plywood that distills Bauhaus principles into a 21st-century form.

Meanwhile, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is marking its centenary in 2025 with exhibitions and events celebrating this enduring legacy. What began in a test workshop at an aircraft plant in Dessau has become one of the most recognizable aesthetics in modern design—proof that tubular steel, once deemed “too cold” for the home, reshaped the very idea of how we live with furniture.