Syracuse University Library’s fall exhibition “Assembly-line Architecture: Repetition and Innovation in the Work of Marcel Breuer” opens with a reception on Thursday, Sept. 13, at 5 p.m. in the Special Collections gallery on Bird Library’s sixth floor. Curated by Teresa Harris, architectural historian and project coordinator for the Marcel Breuer Digital Archive, it showcases original drawings, photographs and documents from Breuer’s long career.
Like many modern architects, Marcel Breuer found inspiration in the repetition characteristic of industrial processes, often relying on modular units or a standard kit of parts to create his buildings and interiors. The limits imposed by these systems stimulated subtle formal and spatial innovation so that no two designs were exactly alike, despite common components.
According to Harris, “Breuer conceived of standardization and experimentation as the two necessary polarities of design that must be balanced in any given project.” The exhibition is arranged thematically, highlighting the interplay of those polarities in Breuer’s modular furniture, his palette of colors and materials, his designs for prefabricated dwellings and his later reliance on precast concrete panel facades.
The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.
The Special Collections Research Center is a hub for primary source research at Syracuse University Library. It is devoted to collecting and preserving rare research materials in all formats and to connecting students, faculty, outside scholars and the community to its collections. For more information, visit scrc.syr.edu.
Pamela Whiteley McLaughlin
Director of Communications & External Relations
Syracuse University Library
222 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-2010
office: 315.443.9788 ||mobile: 315.727.5849
