Kubus Armchair

Overview

Wittmann's product page lists the Kubus Armchair as "Design: Josef Hoffmann (1910)" and calls Kubus the manifestation of everything Hoffmann stood for: a cube, a square elevated into the third dimension, which itself comprises numerous individual squares. Wittmann describes it as geometric, accurate and utterly exacting, revived in the 1960s and inextricably linked with the company. The 2025 press text calls it a recreation of Hoffmann's design of 1910.

Construction

The product page lists a wooden construction frame, beech legs stained black with a semicircular closure lacquered silver and metal glides, and a leather cover with a square partition on all areas, thin piping in all seams and hidden tacking on the crosspoints. The press text describes a cube made of leather in which all surfaces, outside and inside, carry a cube-shaped pattern, with the squares drawn in at the edges and curved in the centre, and with wooden hemispheres under the armchair.

Specifications

• Dimensions: W 93 × D 77 × H 77 cm, seat height 44 cm (product page); the 2025 press text gives H 72
• Frame: wooden construction
• Legs: beech, black stained; semicircular closure silver lacquered; metal glides
• Cover: leather
• Related: Kubus Sofa, listed by the press text as a 2-seater bench (W 166) and a 3-seater bench (W 224), both D 77 × H 72 × seat height 44 cm

A cube made of squares

Wittmann's press text says the eye-catching structure is no mere gag: it follows logically and materially from the processing requirements of the leather. In contrast to the old English leather sofas, Hoffmann transfers the square structure of the individual sewn fields to the overall structure of the armchair and relates large and small form directly, without turning it into an obsessive mania; the rounded also reigns, in the leather compartments and in the wooden hemispheres under the chair.

Revived in the 1960s

According to Wittmann's page, the design was revived in the 1960s and is inextricably linked with Wittmann, embodying the true mastery of the upholsterer's art. Wittmann describes the Kubus armchair, designed in 1910, as a classic example of Hoffmann's strict geometrical lines and the quadratic theme in his work, and has created a matching sofa.