Barcelona Pavilion
Mies van der Rohe
"One of the most influential works of modern architecture"
In the middle of 1928, a few months before the opening of the World Exhibition in Barcelona, Georg von Schnitzler commissioned the work team consisting of Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich to design the German Pavilion.
The building was intended to showcase the ideals of "clarity, simplicity and honesty" that were then highlighted in Germany. In 1930, after the exhibition ended, the building was demolished as planned.
At the end of the 1950s, when Mies van der Rohe was already a renowned architect and enjoyed a high level of international prestige, a key work was seen in this pavilion, not only in the career of this architect, but also in the development of the modern architecture movement.
For this reason, Oriol Bohigas Mies suggested that the building be reconstructed. However, this project was only implemented in 1986 and the replica building was built at the original location of the pavilion with the participation of architects Cristian Cirici, Fernando Ramos and Ignasi de Sola-Morales.
This building is the culmination of Mies van der Rohe's European stage and represents a firm declaration of intent that reveals the new architectural concept. From now on, these new ideas should influence the future architecture generation forever.
Mies van der Rohe was granted great freedom to implement his ideas when erecting this building and was given the opportunity to convey the concepts of modernity to the public. He created a flowing room with a free floor plan in which the hierarchical structures dissolve. The radical structural simplicity was later to become the stylistic feature of the work of this architect, who made popular the motto "less is more".
On the building, noble materials, such as green marble, onyx and travertine, are combined with modern elements, such as steel and large glass surfaces, which are used with honest openness and without cladding. Two water surfaces complement the architectural space, which captivates with its reflective surfaces, which multiply the sculpture “The Morning” from Kolbe to infinity like a labyrinth of mirrors. Among the furnishings in the pavilion is the Barcelona armchair, which has become an icon of modernism.
