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75th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BARCELONA PAVILION
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the
construction of the German Pavilion for the 1929
Barcelona International Exposition, a series of
lectures were given by the Fundació Mies van
der Rohe.
The objective was to foster critical reflection
on the emergence of a form of architecture that
was characterised by a commitment to modernity
in the context of a markedly historicist panorama
– as exemplified by the Exposition precinct itself –
in a culturally backward country, that is, the Spain
of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship.
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The idea, therefore, was to utilise the Pavilion as a
significant pretext on the basis of which to develop a
set of considerations, interpretations and opinions in
the light of recent studies and research.
The series is addressed to architects, historians,
students and anyone interested in modern artistic
culture and will attempt to present the 1929 German
Pavilion in the contexts that made its construction
possible: Berlin and Barcelona, each with its own
cultural baggage, will be revisited.
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Taken into account will be the situation of the city
that accommodated the building and the way Mies'
professional career evolved to the point where he
managed to define one of the emblematic works
of what came to be known as the Modern
Movement.
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BARCELONA PAVILION
The George Kobe sculpture was a last minute choice
One of the classic designs of International
Modernism, technically this building should be
called the German Pavilion in Barcelona, since it
was constructed as a temporary building for the
International Exposition in Barcelona of 1929.
Though temporary, it was still made of permanant
materials--steel, glass, marble, and travertine.
The Barcelona Pavilion was designed to represent
Germany’s "openness, liberality, modernity and
internationalism…we do not want anything but
clarity, simplicity and honesty," stipulated the
Commissar General of the Reich.
A prominent member of the German architectural
avant-garde, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, was
commissioned to design it. A year later he would be
the Director of the Bauhaus School for art, crafts
and architecture, and forty years after that he would
be commemorated as one of the great architects of
the twentieth century.
Although the building was dismantled in 1930 it was
rebuilt on the original site by a team of 3 architects
in 1986.
Mies also designed the chairs and stools which
were expensive but austere in look: white leather
strands were interweaved on thick-firm cushions and
the x-shaped frame is in chromed steel.
The chairs were designed to be used as thrones for
the Spanish King and Queen when the German
Ambassador received them.
There was no other furniture or fixtures, apart from
a deep red velvet curtain.
"The site selected by Mies for the German Pavilion in
Barcelona allowed for the transverse passage of
visitors from a terrace-like avenue bordering the
exhibition palaces to the other attractions. In addition,
it afforded fine views of the exposition grounds and of
the city of Barcelona. The building had no real
program, as that term is understood and used by
architects today. It was to be whatever Mies chose to
make of it.
The only function it had to accommodate was a
reception for the King and Queen of Spain as they
signed the "Golden Book" officially opening the
exposition.
According to Mies, the furniture designed and
fabricated especially for the pavilion, the Barcelona
chairs and stools, went unused during the opening
ceremony.
"To tell you the truth," he remarked, "nobody
ever used them."
It was not intended to exhibit the works of German
manufacturers, but was rather supposed to make a
bold statement about contemporary Germany.
The building lasted six months before it was
dismantled and the materials sold.
Nonetheless, it remained an icon of the Modern
Movement throughout the 20th century,
The Pavilion received little attention during its brief
lifetime. The late twenties were a time when
Modernists were struggling to gain commissions and
acceptance of their ideas .
Nonetheless, the building soon became a totem for
Mies' like-minded contemporaries.
Less is More
Freed from traditional design constraints (i.e. no-one
had to live or work in the building, and the only
'exhibits' were a few chairs designed by Mies, he was
able to construct a building which came to epitomise
what Modern architecture should be clean,
uncomplicated in appearance, with no apparent
reference to past historical styles, and using modern
technology to explore new ways of construction.
The building still looks modern today, partly because
many of the design features are still copied by 21st
century architects.
The glass appeared to be load bearing which made
the thin concrete roof seem to float above the stone
podium on which the whole structure is based.
The roof is held in place by cruciform steel columns
which are clad in chrome. The walls are marble and
travertine. The open-plan nature of the Pavilion
allowed Mies to experiment with space, creating an
ambiguity about what is interior and what is exterior,
and there is a tranquillity about the place despite its
completely open-ended structure.
The simple emptiness of the Pavilion was in itself a
revolutionary feature.
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BARCELONA PAVILION -- THE ONYX WALL
According to Mies:
"Right from the beginning I had a clear idea of what
to do with that pavilion. But nothing was fixed yet, it
was still a bit hazy.
But then when I visited the showrooms of a marble
firm at Hamburg, I said: "Tell me, haven't you got
something else, something really beautiful?". I thought
of that freestanding wall I had, and so they said: "Well,
we have a big block of onyx. But that block is sold—to
the North German Lloyd."
They want to make big vases from it for the dining
room in a new steamer.
So I said: 'Listen, let me see it, ' and they at once
shouted: 'No, no, no, that can't be done, for
Heaven's sake you mustn't touch that marvellous
piece." But I said: "Just give me a hammer, will you,
and I'll show you how we used to do that at home."
So reluctantly they brought a hammer, and they
were curious whether I would want to chip away a
corner. But no, I hit the block hard just once right in
the middle, and off came a thin slab the size of my
hand.
'Now go and polish it at once so that I can see it."
And so we decided to use onyx. We fixed the
quantities and brought the stone."
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BARCELONA PAVILION
Official party photo taken at the Opening of the German Pavilion at the Barcelona World Expo, 1929.
Invitation to the official relaunching of the reconstructed Barcelona Pavilion, 1986
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BARCELONA PAVILION
Postcard showing architecture at the World Expo in Barcelona, 1929 - highlighting just how radically progressive the German pavillon was.
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NOTABLE COMMENTS CONCERNING THE PAVILION
Despite the perfect vertical and horizontal
lines, the building appears in no way hard or
industrial, and yet it was new technology and
methods of utilising concrete and steel made the
whole thing possible.
The two reflecting pools and Georg Kolbe's
classical and curvy female statue combine with
Mies' geometry to create a space which is
amazingly calm and meditative; one in which
Mies's famous dictum 'less is more' seems
perfectly appropriate.
Today architects and students flock to the
Pavilion to admire Mies' achievement, and to see
for themselves a building whose influence can be
seen in every building which seeks to do away
with stone walls and replace them with sheets of
plate glass.
Mies himself went on to perfect the corporate glass
and steel skyscraper in the United States, using
many of the techniques he applied so successfully
at his Pavilion.
And although the Pavilion is, in a sense, pointless,
in 1929 it stood as a monument to what the
Modernist architect could achieve.
NOTABLE COMMENTS RE PAVILION
"The covered portion of the pavilion, one story high,
occupied roughly the north half of the podium.
Beneath its flat roof ran the series of interwoven
spaces that has, as much as anything else, won the
Barcelona Pavilion its immense prestige. The roof
rested on walls, or more properly wall planes,
placed asymmetrically but always in parallels or
perpendiculars, so that they appeared to slide past
each other in a space through which the viewer
could walk more or less endlessly, without ever
being stopped within a cubical area. This open plan,
with its intimation of an infinite freedom of
movement, was at the same time qualified by two
rows of equally spaced, cruciform columns that
stood in martial formation amid the gliding walls.
The columnar arrangement constituted Mies's first
use of the grid as an ordering factor in his building,
a prefiguration of the monumental regularity that
marked the work of his American years."
Franz Schulze
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"The Barcelona pavilion...was without practical
purpose. No functional programme determined or
even influenced its appearance. No part of its
interior was taken up by exhibits: the building
itself was the object on view and the 'exhibition'
was an architectural space such as had never
been seen. The building consisted of walls and
columns arranged on a low travertine marble
podium...it channeled space between separate
vertical and horizontal planes. But this time the
flow of space was held within clamp-like walls at
each end of the podium."
Martin Pawley,
"In reality, the Barcelona Pavilion was a patch-up
structure. Technically Mies was unable to erect
the pavilion as a pure 'Dom-ino' structure; the
eight cruciform columns alone could not support
the roof and a number of extra columns had to be
lodged in the double-skinned marble screens to
help carry the load. But this makeshift structure did
the job Mies asked of it and the plan remained
inviolate. He pursued the idea in his model house
at the Berlin Building Exhibition of 1931,..."
Frank Russell,
"Radical rationalist that he is, his designs are
governed by a passion for beautiful architecture.
He is one of the very few modern architects who
has carried its theories beyond a barren functional
formula into the plastically beautiful. Material and
space disposition are the ingredients with which
he gets his effect of elegant serenity. Evoking in
his work a love for beautiful materials and textures
he emphasizes this predilection."
Helen Appleton Read.
"For me working in Barcelona was a brilliant
moment in my life."
Mies van der Rohe.
"Artistic expression is a manifestation of the unity
of design and material.This once again underlines
the necessity to incorporate works of sculpture
(or painting) creatively into the interior setting from
the outset. In the great epochs of cultural history
this was done by architects as a matter of course
and, no doubt, without conscious reflection."
Mies van der Rohe.
"I have tried to make an architecture for a
technological society. I have wanted to keep
everything reasonable and clear--to have an
architecture that anybody can do."
Mies van der Rohe
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"Architecture is an expression of how one
protects himself against the outside world, and
how one manages to conquer it. It always
represents the expression of spiritual decision in
space".
Mies van der Rohe
"There are real construction elements, from
which a new richer architecture can be
developed. They give us a measure of
freedom that we no longer want to give up.
Only now can we divide, open and join space
with the landscape, in order to fulfil modern
man's need for space. Simplicity of construction,
clarity of tectonic means and purity of materials
become the bearers of a new beauty".
Mies van der Rohe
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FOUNDATION MIES VAN DER ROHE CELEBRATIONS
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The Fundació Mies van der Rohe, along with
the member institutions of its Board of Trustees,
planned a series of activities to celebrate the 75th
anniversary of the Pavilion.
A series of cultural events are being held in
different Mediterranean cities with the aim of
promoting values such as peace, cohabitation,
solidarity and sustainability, such as the Olympic
Games in Athens, the European Cultural Capital
of Genoa and the Forum Barcelona 2004.
As a contribution to these initiatives, the theatre
group La Fura dels Baus offered its ship, the
Naumon, as a meeting point for the Fundació
Mies van der Rohe at La Biennale di Venezia.
The Naumon became the floating site for
conferences, exhibitions, workshops and shows.
On its itinerary through different Mediterranean
ports such as Athens, Barcelona, Beirut, Istanbul,
Marseilles and Venice, the Naumon will be
transformed into a laboratory where the
experiences of these cities may be analysed and
compared.
Above all, the intention is to meet a common
objective in each of these cities: research on
social housing and public space as two
compatible systems that may be conceived in a
unitary way and used as a tool for transformation
in deteriorated urban settings.
During the second half of the 20th century, the
majority of European cities were subject to
phenomena such as immigration and tourism
that have resulted in conditions of violent clashes.
Moreover, in many cities emergency situations
such as wars and natural catastrophes still
generate the relentless destruction of their
recognisable urban fabrics, resulting in the
sudden emergence of new opportunities for
construction.
During this period, almost all cities were forced
to build new housing block developments on
their outskirts that disregard the ideas of the
Modern Movement concerning typologies and
urbanism.
The outcome is the rise of new ghettos
characterised by deficient connections with the
historical city centre, a lack of qualified public
space, defective construction and a rigid,
unimaginative typological approach to public
housing design.
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BARCELONA ® TRADEMARK PROTECTION GRANTED
Knoll Announces Trademark Office Protection
for its Mies van der Rohe Barcelona® Collection
and Flat Bar Brno Chair
From the hand-buffed frame to the individual leather
squares carefully welted together, Mies intended each
Barcelona® piece to honor traditional craftsmanship
and meticulous attention to detail;
October 22, 2004
Knoll, Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of
branded furniture and textiles, announced today that
the United States Patent and Trademark Office has
granted it registered trademark protection for five of
its world-famous furniture designs created by Mies
van der Rohe:
the Barcelona ® Chair,
the Barcelona ® Stool,
the Barcelona ® Couch
the Barcelona ® Table and
the Flat Bar Brno Chair.
The grant by this government agency recognizes the
renown of these designs and gives Knoll government
authority to pursue knock-offs of these registered
designs.
These knock-offs, whether manufactured
domestically or imported, will be considered
infringements of the Knoll registered trademarks and
will subject the infringer to damages and product
impoundment.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a world-famous
architect and one of the most influential designers of
the twentieth century, designed the German pavilion
for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. The
result was one of the master's best-known
architectural designs.
"God is in the details," remains his most
characteristic statement of philosophy, and one this
collection reflects.
Director of the Bauhaus school of design from 1930
to 1933, Mies moved to the United States in 1937.
In 1948, he and Florence Knoll collaborated to
manufacture the Barcelona collection, comprised of
the chair, stool and table, for the first time in the
United States. Later, Knoll added the Flat Bar Brno
Chair and the Barcelona® Couch to the collection;
both were made to Mies's specifications.
To receive the legal recognition of being a registered
trademark, a furniture design must be shown to the
Trademark Office as having acquired an association
and recognizable distinctiveness in connection with
its manufacturer.
Knoll demonstrated to the government agency that
the Barcelona® collection has been sold in
significant volume since the 1950s, had been
continuously marketed and promoted as acclaimed
Mies van der Rohe designs, and had been exhibited
in design museums around the world as a work of
art.
The Trademark Office reviewed and accepted
Knoll's claims, and promptly issued trademark
registrations for these items.
The pure composition of the Barcelona® collection
has since come to epitomize Modern architecture.
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The issuance of these trademark registrations
signals the beginning of the Company's effort to
ensure that when architects, furniture retailers or
the public purchase a Mies van der Rohe design,
they will be purchasing the genuine article, following
Mies van der Rohe's historic design specifications.
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Andrew Cogan, CEO of Knoll, stated,
"We are committed to preserving the integrity of
these landmark designs, and will continue to
manufacture these products according to the
designer's original specifications.
"We are especially pleased that the United States
Patent & Trademark Office has recognized the
need for trademark protection for the Barcelona
collection and the Flat Bar Brno Chair, and we will
be working with U.S. Customs to stop unauthorized
imports from reaching this country,"
"Some of Mies's well-known architectural works
include the Seagram Building in New York City;
the Lakeshore Drive Apartments in Chicago, Illinois;
and the Tugendhat House, in Brno, Czech
Republic.
Founded in 1938, Knoll pioneered the principles of
modern design in the workplace, from space
planning to furniture to accessories.
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"GOD IS IN THE DETAILS" -- MIES
The modern city, with its towers of glass and steel,
can be at least in part attributed to the influence of
architect Mies van der Rohe. Equally significant, if
smaller in scale, is Mies' daring design of furniture,
pieces that exhibit an unerring sense of proportion,
as well as minimalist forms and exquisitely refined
details.
In fact, his chairs have been called architecture in
miniature exercises in structure and materials that
achieve an extraordinary visual harmony as
autonomous pieces or in relation to the interiors for
which they were originally designed.
In the mid-1920's, he began to design furniture,
pieces that he conceived and created for particular
interiors.
In 1927, Mies met Lilly Reich, a Bauhaus alumnus
who collaborated with Mies on his first versions of a
cantilevered chair with a tubular steel frame.
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The cantilevered chair had a curved frame that
exploited the aesthetic, as well as the structural
possibilities of this material. Their experiments
culminated in the virtuoso Brno chair designed
between 1929 and 1930 with a chromed flat steel
frame.
Two years later, Mies and Lilly Reich designed what
is perhaps his most famous creation the Barcelona chair and footstool.
Created for the German Pavilion at the Barcelona
International Exhibition, the Pavilion chair was
intended as a modern throne; a thick cushion
upholstered in luxurious leather and set upon a
curved metal frame in the shape of an X inspired by
classical furniture.
His inspiration for the Barcelona chair was the Form
Fan Egyptian folding chair, long thought to be a
symbol of power, and a folding stool from Roman
times.
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Perfectly proportioned and finished, the simple chair
exuded an air of elegance and authority.
In 1938, Mies emigrated from Europe and moved to
Chicago. The rest of his career was devoted to
promoting the Modernist style of architecture in the
U.S., resulting in rigorously modern buildings such as
the Farnsworth House and the Seagram Building,
designed with Philip Johnson.
The Bauhaus, started by Walter Gropius in 1919 to
be a "laboratory for mass consumption", embraced
the machine aesthetic which focused on design and
material choices that were appropriate for mass
production. Designers were led to experiment with
materials and carefully scrutinized their designs for
manufacturability and efficiency, often more so than
for aesthetics.
In the period between World War I and World War II,
the machine had a powerful impact on culture and
design in America and Europe.
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"GOD IS IN THE DETAILS" -- BARCELONA SERIES
Early model prototype of the Barcelona footstool.
Engineering drawings for the famous Barcelona footstool "X:"
W.I.P. Sketches by Mies in his exploration for a coffee table design to suit the Barcelona chair and stool.
Mies' daring design of furniture, exhibit an unerring
sense of proportion, as well as minimalist forms and
exquisitely refined details.
In fact, his chairs have been called architecture in
miniature exercises in structure and materials that
achieve an extraordinary visual harmony.
Barcelona collection
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"GOD IS IN THE DETAILS" -- OTHER CHAIRS BY MIES
BRNO chair - flat bar - 1930
MR Series - 1927
BRNO chair - round tubular
Artists and designers struggled to understand and
make sense of the new machine-driven world, and
experimented with the direction it might give to their
work. This movement towards modern design
depended heavily on new materials and
manufacturing processes as well as a new
consideration for function.
For Breuer, standardized steel tubing was light,
manageable and durable. This material was to
become a significant emblem of the Modern
Movement.
This famous chair is closely related to the
cantilevered chair by Ludwig Meis van der Rohe at
the Bauhaus at the same period.
One of these new materials was tubular-steel.
The Wassily armchair by Marcel Breuer was one
of the first examples of modular tube-steel furniture
and has become inextricably associated with the
Bauhaus.
A pioneer in the Modern Movement and among the
first to exploit the possibilities of tubular steel for
mass-produced furniture, Breuer, a student and later
a teacher at the Bauhaus carpentry workshop,
sought a material that expressed its modern
industrial origins in a way that wood, also a modern
material, could not.
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Why was this tube construction technique such a
dramatic advancement in furniture design and
manufacture?
First of all, it made possible a far more efficient
method of joining components. The parts could be
welded together for clean, strong joints, with no
bulky structures.
Second, the tubes could be finished with chrome
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Finally, the results of this system were lighter in
appearance and far stronger than wooden
members of similar size. The nature of wood
required that joints be of substantial size to give
necessary strength.
This is a good example of how technological
advances affect the way products are made and
how they look. Ironically, chair designs such as
these, which appear very much to be machinemade, were in fact very labor-intensive to produce
and, therefore costly to manufacture—an aspect
that ran counter to the Bauhaus philosophy.
It was realized that the true mass-production of
Modern furniture would only be possible if a form
of mechanized standardization was adopted.
However, it was not until after World War II that it
became economically and technically feasible to
achieve this on a wide scale
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"MR SERIES" -- CONCEPT DESIGN SKETCHES
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MR TABLE 1927
In 1927, the design and patent for his tubular steel cantilevered chair brought Mies into the international spotlight. The chair was a simple cantilevered curved structure with
a woven cane seat, made in various versions with and without armrests. The character of the chair, was that of a formal, refined comfort. The seat and back would give
slightly, under the user's weight, but the outward appearance replaced the cosy qualities of a large upholstered armchair - with a smaller and more streamlined chair.
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