Sold! 100 Design Relics from Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, FLW and More

UPDATE: The auction has concluded and more than £5.6 million was made. Find out how much the famous, architect-designed relics went for after the break.

Next week, a rare collection of over 100 relics designed by some of architecture’s most significant practitioners from the last two centuries will be auctioned off at the Phillip’s in London. Ranging from a full-scale paper tea house by this year’s Pritzker laureate Shigeru Ban to the Peacock chair designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel, the items being showcased and sold are an ode to the ideas in which have had a profound impact on our built environment.

An exhibition of the items, appropriately titled “The Architect,” is already underway, prior to the auction on April 29.

Works by Gerrit Rietveld, Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer are all available for purchase. Read on for a preview of the highlighted items...

 

Otto Wagner: Armchair, designed for the Director's Office of the Österreichische Postsparkasse, Vienna, 1906 (Sold for £27,500)

Otto Wagner: Armchair, designed for the Director's Office of the Österreichische Postsparkasse, Vienna, 1906. Image Courtesy of Phillips

Frank Lloyd Wright: 'Peacock' chair, designed for the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, designed 1921-1922 (Sold for £35,000)

Frank Lloyd Wright: 'Peacock' chair, designed for the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, designed 1921-1922. Image Courtesy of Phillips

Gerrit Rietveld: 'Berlin' chair, designed 1923, executed circa 1957 (Sold for £16,250)

Gerrit Rietveld: 'Berlin' chair, designed 1923, executed circa 1957. Image Courtesy of Phillips

Marcel Breuer: Chair, model no. WB 301, circa 1933-1934 

Marcel Breuer: Chair, model no. WB 301, circa 1933-1934. Image Courtesy of Phillips

Franco Albini: Early and rare rocking chaise longue,circa 1940 (Sold for £10,000)

Franco Albini: Early and rare rocking chaise longue,circa 1940. Image Courtesy of Phillips

Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret: Ventilator shutter, designed for the administrative buildings, Chandigarh, model no. LC-EA-05-A, circa 1958 

Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret: Ventilator shutter, designed for the administrative buildings, Chandigarh, model no. LC-EA-05-A, circa 1958. Image Courtesy of Phillips

Paul Rudolph: 'Rolling' armchair, circa 1968 (Sold for £10,000)

Paul Rudolph: 'Rolling' armchair, circa 1968. Image Courtesy of Phillips

Jean Prouvé: Panel, from the Institut de l'Environnement, Paris, 1968 (Sold for £11,250)

Jean Prouvé: Panel, from the Institut de l'Environnement, Paris, 1968. Image Courtesy of Phillips

Oscar Niemeyer: Pair of 'Aran' lounge chairs, circa 1975 (Sold for £32,500)

Oscar Niemeyer: Pair of 'Aran' lounge chairs, circa 1975. Image Courtesy of Phillips

Buckminster Fuller: Unique ‘Dymaxion Airocean World Map’, for the Third National Bank, Dayton, 1979 (Sold for £56,250)

Buckminster Fuller: Unique ‘Dymaxion Airocean World Map’, for the Third National Bank, Dayton, 1979. Image Courtesy of Phillips

Richard Meier: Rocking chaise longue, 1978-1982 (Sold for £10,000)

Richard Meier: Rocking chaise longue, 1978-1982. Image Courtesy of Phillips

Shigeru Ban: 'PTH-02 Paper Tea House', 2006

Shigeru Ban: 'PTH-02 Paper Tea House', 2006. Image Courtesy of Phillips

Steven Holl: Unique prototype, bamboo 'Porosity Bench',2008

Steven Holl: Unique prototype, bamboo 'Porosity Bench',2008. Image Courtesy of Phillips

"The objects that we have on offer are spectacular, but it's the ideas behind them, intangible within them, that make this collection of things so interesting," said curator and American architect Lee Mindel to WSJ. "It's about being educated about these architects, their intentions, who they were, how they thought, and contextualizing them in a kind of genealogy of the world. Then you can understand their philosophy, and consider how they were able to extrapolate that and put it into this tangible object."

More information and product highlights can be found here.

Reference: WSJ, Phillips

About this author
Cite: Karissa Rosenfield. "Sold! 100 Design Relics from Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, FLW and More" 02 May 2014. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/500442/on-auction-100-design-relics-from-niemeyer-le-corbusier-flw-and-more> ISSN 0719-8884

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