Projects by Name

In 1932, Paul and Marianne Harnischmacher commissioned Breuer to design a house for them in Wiesbaden. Paul was the President of a company that manufactured shoe-cleaning products, and had already hired Breuer to designing interiors for an apartment and office. This house was the first of Breuer's executed buildings and was completed in December of 1932 for a cost 35,000 Reichsmarks. With its steel frame and concrete structure covered in white stucco, it presented a stark contrast to the neighboring historical villas. Breuer situated the house at the northeast corner of the site so as to allow for the largest possible garden. The house was set into a hillside and rose two stories on the street façade, which was almost blank except for a canopy over the entrance. The three-story garden façade possessed a multitude of strip windows with large panes of glass and two projecting porches, both of which could be accessed by external stairs. While Breuer was obviously inspired by Le Corbusier's villa designs, in particular the Villa Stein at Garches, the house also incorporated a number of elements that would become standard in Breuer's later works, including bush-hammered concrete pilotis and the use of fieldstone retaining walls. Breuer also designed the interiors, juxtaposing white walls with tubular steel and ebonized black wood furniture.