MR Chair

Looking for new materials for functional furniture many architects turned in the 1920s to tubular steel, including Mies van der Rohe, designer of the MR chair for Knoll. As vice president of the Deutscher Werkbund Mies van der Rohe was responsible for the realization of the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, an exhibition of the architect and designer staged in 1927. In context of the exhibition Mart Stam produced designs for the first cantilever chairs; and a short time later, Mies van der Rohe presented his first free-floating designs made of steel tube at the Weissenhof Estate. The construction principle employed in the MR cantilever chair ensures a high level of comfort, a comfort previously only known in upholstered chairs and armchairs else, albeit associated with a new, delicate lightness. With their clarity and minimalism yet high level of practical functionality, cantilever chairs were predestined for the interior of the new buildings being designed in the inter-war years and have gone on to secure their place in the history of furniture design. Suitable for use in private, public and commercial spaces the Mies van der Rohe MR chair remains one of the most endearing examples of this revolutionary seating concept and today Knoll International manufactures the steel tube design classic in a range of cow hide leathers.