Barcelona Pavilion
Germany’s pavilion at the 1929 International Exposition had nothing to show except itself. A flat roof rests on eight chrome-clad steel columns, and free-standing walls of onyx, marble and glass guide the visitor’s path. The pavilion was demolished in 1930 and rebuilt in 1986.
For the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona the Weimar Republic wanted to present a modern, democratic Germany. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe received the commission and worked together with the designer Lilly Reich, who was also responsible for the German industrial exhibition. The pavilion did not need to house any objects but was a representational building, where the King and Queen were to be received at the opening. This gave Mies the freedom to build a pure architectural manifesto. He chose costly materials: travertine, green marble from the Alps and Greece, golden onyx and tinted glass in several colours, and combined them with chrome-plated steel. Construction was swift, and the pavilion stood on its site at the foot of Montjuïc only for the months of the exposition.
The pavilion stands on a low travertine plinth. A thin, flat roof rests on eight cruciform steel columns, and the walls beneath are free-standing, so that they carry nothing but simply direct movement. The spaces flow into one another and out towards terraces and water. A large pool lies in front, and in a smaller pool at the far end stands Georg Kolbe’s bronze sculpture of a woman, often called Morning. The onyx wall at the centre is the most precious part of the building and shimmers when the light falls on it. For the reception Mies and Reich designed a chair of chrome-plated steel and leather, now known as the Barcelona chair and still in production. The interplay of planes, columns and water allows visitors to see right through the building.
After the exposition the pavilion was dismantled, and for several decades it survived only in black-and-white photographs. Even so, it became one of the most influential buildings of the 20th century, and the idea of free walls beneath a load-bearing roof followed Mies to his later work in the United States. In the 1980s the pavilion was rebuilt on the same site by a group of Catalan architects, based on photographs and surviving drawings, and it opened in 1986. The reconstruction has prompted discussion about what it means to rebuild a lost work, but it allows visitors to experience the space. The Barcelona chair has become a classic in Swedish homes and public settings too, and the pavilion’s free plan influenced Scandinavian villas in the post-war period.