Knoll

Like his Wassily and Cesca chairs, Marcel Breuer’s Laccio Tables are critical to the story of 20th-century design. Breuer’s use of tubular steel to define lines in space—beautifully exhibited in these simple nesting tables—revolutionized furniture construction and inspired many subsequent generations of designers.

Product story

In an interview with a Knoll historian, Marcel Breuer described how he came to begin experimenting with bent tubular steel while at the Bauhaus:

“At that time I was rather idealistic. 23 years old. I made friends with a young architect, and I bought my first bicycle. I learned to ride the bicycle and talked to this young fellow and told him that the bicycle seems to be a perfect production because it hasn’t changed in the last twenty, thirty years. It is still the original bicycle form. He said, “Did you ever see how they make those parts? How they bend those handlebars? You would be interested because they bend those steel tubes like macaroni.”

“This somehow remained in my mind, and I started to think about steel tubes which are bent into frames—probably that is the material you could use for an elastic and transparent chair. Typically, I was very much engaged with the transparency of the form.”

Marcel Breuer

A champion of the modern movement and protégé of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer is equally celebrated for his achievements in architecture and furniture. His entire body of work, both architecture and furniture, embodies the driving Bauhaus objective to reconcile art and industry. While at the Bauhaus, Breuer revolutionized the modern interior with his tubular-steel furniture collection — inspired by bicycle construction and fabricated using the techniques of local plumbers. His first designs, including the Wassily, remain among the most identifiable icons of the modern furniture movement.

Learn more

Additional Info

Construction and Details

Top: Durable satin finish plastic laminate over MDF core
Frame: Seamless 1" diameter tubular steel with polished chrome or ultra-matte powder-coated finish 
The 2024 introductions of ultra-matte dark red, onyx, and white reframe the iconic form of this Bauhaus-era table  
Laccio Side Table can nest over the Laccio Coffee Table
Four plastic glides snap into predrilled holes to protect floors
An original Marcel Breuer design, the frame is stamped with the Knoll logo and designer’s signature, ensuring lifetime authentication.