Three historical pieces of furniture

In addition to the furniture made specifically for Apartment 1/11, three historical pieces from the museum’s Design Collection have also been placed there.

Dining table 91, 1933: designed by Hungarian industrial designer Marcel Breuer (1902–1981), who is considered to be one of the great masters of the modernist movement. It reflects the shift towards simplicity in furniture design that began in the 1920s. It is a very light, functional table. The tabletop is covered in black linoleum, which is set on a tongue-and-groove plywood structure with a pine frame. The entire outer edge of the frame is covered with a maple veneer. The four straight chrome-plated tubular steel legs are screwed to the underside of the tabletop with angular metal brackets. Linoleum is easy to clean, and the designers of the modernist movement championed it as a hygienic material that made the use of tablecloths unnecessary.

Folding chair B751, 1930: This lightweight and extremely practical folding chair is a piece of furniture that the members of GATCPAC used frequently to go with dining tables and desks. Produced by the Viennese company Gebrüder Thonet, these chairs were distributed worldwide. This one is from Grifé & Escoda, a shop in Barcelona that was the main sales outlet in Spain. The Design Museum of Barcelona has an example of the same model of folding chair (MADB 135.388), produced by Thonet-Mundus in Vienna, Austria, in its collection. This chair has become a modern classic thanks to the clean lines of the rationalist design that give it a fresh, up-to-date feel that combines a practical folding structure with a wide, comfortable seat. A success that led Gebrüder Thonet to produce more at a later date.

Folding chair B61, 1930: Metal furniture, especially tubular furniture, was truly revolutionary during the 1920s and ’30s because it was quick and inexpensive to produce, as well as being very practical and aesthetically pleasing. This folding chair was produced by tubular furniture manufacturer Thonet, an Austrian company with a long history known worldwide for its bentwood furniture. Thonet incorporated metal into its products and treated the steel tubing with a special chemical process. The company commissioned renowned architects to design its furniture, thus achieving practical pieces with solid, functional shapes. In the case of this chair, the lacquer finish protects the steel extremely well, making it resistant to blows and scratches, as well as being easy to clean. At the factory, all the wooden parts (such as the seat and the back) were produced in black, with a either a gloss or a matte finish, unless a different colour was specifically requested.