Built to represent the young Weimar Republic as democratic, modern, and at peace after the First World War, the Pavilion held nothing but itself: no exhibits, only a reflecting pool, a smaller courtyard pool with Georg Kolbe's bronze figure Alba (Dawn), and rooms defined by freestanding planes of glass and coloured stone rather than walls. Reviewers of the 1929 exposition singled it out immediately; the German government dismantled it when the exposition closed in 1930. Designed jointly with Lilly Reich, who shaped its furnishing and, with Mies, the chair that would later carry the building's name, it was rebuilt on the original site by Catalan architects between 1983 and 1986 using the same quarries and the original drawings and survives today as the clearest built statement of Mies's free plan.
Facts
Year Created LocationMontjuic, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain 1 Architectural StyleInternational Style modernism 2 Structural SystemFreestanding chrome-plated cruciform steel columns carry a flat roof slab independent of the marble and glass partitions below it, an early built demonstration of Mies's free plan. 2 Primary MaterialSteel, glass, and four kinds of stone: Roman travertine, Alpine green marble, ancient Greek green marble, and golden onyx from the Atlas Mountains 1 Building TypeNational exhibition pavilion 1 Commissioned ByThe Weimar Republic (German national government), as the German pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition 2 Current UseMuseum and cultural venue; the original was dismantled in 1930 and the building was reconstructed on its footings in 1983 to 1986 1 Visitor AccessOpen to the public, ticketed 1 Connections
Created By
Reich co-designed the interior fittings and, with Mies, the Barcelona chair; her credit was omitted from most twentieth-century accounts and restored by later scholarship (MoMA's 1996 Reich exhibition; Fundacio Mies van der Rohe research since).
Source Fundacio Mies van der Rohe
Source Fundacio Mies van der Rohe
In Form
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
In Genre
In Movement
Source Wikipedia
Additional Source Barcelona Pavilion (Wikipedia)Barcelona Pavilion article
Source Wikipedia
Additional Source Barcelona Pavilion (Wikipedia)Barcelona Pavilion article
In the Other Atlases
Located In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is located.
Sources
1. Fundacio Mies van der Rohe
Fundacio Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona- The Pavilion
Genre reference
Designed jointly with Lilly Reich, who shaped its furnishing and, with Mies, the chair that would later carry the building's name, it was rebuilt on the original site by Catalan architects between 1983 and 1986 using the same quarries and the original drawings and survives today as the clearest built statement of Mies's free plan.
- Created By: Lilly Reich, Lilly Reich in Barcelona: The Materialization of a Neglected Authorship, by Laura Martinez de Guerenu
View the Source 2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation
Barcelona Pavilion (Wikipedia)
Gardner's Art Through the Ages
Fred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Cengage LearningIn Form: Architecture, chapters on architectural history across periods
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Created By: Lilly Reich
For most of the twentieth century, the Barcelona Pavilion and the chair made for it were credited to Mies van der Rohe alone. The chair was not even given the name Barcelona chair until Knoll assigned it in 1987. Lilly Reich, Mies's partner on the project and, by later research, co-designer of its furniture and interior fittings, went unnamed in most accounts until historians, notably following MoMA's 1996 exhibition on her work, restored her credit.
A dissenting reading, from Twentieth-century design credit convention (museum and manufacturer catalog lines through the 20th century)Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation
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