Barcelona Pavilion

Barcelona Pavilion
Pabellón Alemán (Spanish) Pavelló Alemany (Catalan)
Alternative names	German Pavilion
General information
Type	Exhibition building
Architectural style	Modernism
Location	Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Coordinates
Construction started	1928 (1928)
Completed	1929 (1929)
Inaugurated	27 May 1929
Demolished	1930 (rebuilt in 1986)
Client	Government of Germany
Technical details
Structural system	steel frame with glass and polished stone
Design and construction
Architect	Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Website
.com.miesbcnwww

The Barcelona Pavilion (Catalan: Pavelló alemany; Spanish: Pabellón alemán; "German Pavilion"), designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, was the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. This building was used for the official opening of the German section of the exhibition.^[1] It is an important building in the history of modern architecture, known for its simple form and its spectacular use of extravagant materials, such as marble, red onyx and travertine. The same features of minimalism and spectacular can be applied to the prestigious furniture specifically designed for the building, among which the iconic Barcelona chair. It has inspired many important modernist buildings, including Michael Manser's Capel Manor House in Kent.

Concept

Mies was offered the commission of this building in 1928 after his successful administration of the 1927 Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart. The German Republic entrusted Mies with the artistic management and erection of not only the Barcelona Pavilion, but for the buildings for all the German sections at the 1929 International Exhibition. However, Mies had severe time constraints—he had to design the Barcelona Pavilion in less than a year—and was also dealing with uncertain economic conditions.

In the years following ^[2] This concept was carried out with the realization of the "Free plan" and the "Floating roof".^[1]

Building

Plan of the Barcelona Pavilion

Mies's response to the proposal by von Schnitzler was radical. After rejecting the original site for aesthetic reasons, Mies agreed to a quiet site at the narrow side of a wide, diagonal axis, where the pavilion would still offer viewpoints and a route leading to one of the exhibition's main attractions, the Poble Espanyol.^[3]

The pavilion was to be bare, with no exhibits, leaving only the structure accompanying a single sculpture and specially-designed furniture (the

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Barcelona landmarks Buildings and interesting places Arc de Triomf Anella Olímpica Avinguda Diagonal Barcelona Pavilion Barcelona Royal Shipyard Basilica of the Immaculate Conception Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy Basilica of Saint Joseph Oriol Basilica of Saints Justus and Pastor Bellesguard Biblioteca de Catalunya Casa Amatller Casa Batlló Casa Calvet Casa de l'Ardiaca Casa Fuster Casa Lleó Morera Casa Milà Casa Terrades Casa Vicens Castell dels Tres Dragons Cathedral of Santa Eulalia Columbus Monument Dona i Ocell Els Quatre Gats Estació de França Fabra Observatory Font de Canaletes Forum Building Fossar de les Moreres Fundació Joan Miró Old Hospital de Sant Pau Hospital de Sant Pau Hotel Arts Hotel Habitat Sky IMAX Barcelona Jewish quarter Jonqueres Monastery La Boqueria L'Auditori L'Illa Magic Fountain of Montjuïc Mercat del Born Mercat de Sant Antoni Montjuïc Castle Montjuïc Communications Tower Olympic Harbour Palau del Baró de Quadras Palau Episcopal de Barcelona Palau Güell Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya Palau Reial Major Palau Robert Palau de la Virreina Parliament of Catalonia Pedralbes Monastery Poble Espanyol Sagrada Família Sagrat Cor Sala de les Cent Columnes Santa Maria del Mar Santa Maria del Pi Torre Agbar Torre de Collserola Venetian Towers Vapor Vell World Trade Center Barcelona Streets and squares Avinguda Diagonal Carrer d'Avinyó Carrer Ferran Carrer Tallers Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes La Rambla Passeig de Gràcia Plaça de Catalunya Plaça d'Espanya Plaça del Rei Plaça Reial Plaça Sant Jaume Plaça de Sant Felip Neri Rambla de Catalunya Museums Archaeology Museum of Catalonia CaixaForum Barcelona CCCB CosmoCaixa Barcelona Fundació Antoni Tàpies Jardí Botànic de Barcelona MACBA Museu de les Arts Decoratives Wax museum Museu de Ceràmica Egyptian Museum Museu de l'Eròtica de Barcelona Museu Etnològic Museu Frederic Marès Museu d'Història de Catalunya Barcelona City History Museum MUHBA Maritime Museum Museu del Modernisme Català Museu de la Música Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya Museu del Perfum de Barcelona Museu Picasso Museu Tèxtil i d'Indumentària Museu de la Xocolata Sports Camp Municipal Narcís Sala Camp Nou Camp de Les Corts Estadi de Sarrià Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys Mini Estadi Palau dels Esports Palau Blaugrana Palau Sant Jordi Performing arts Gran Teatre del Liceu L'Auditori Palau de la Música Catalana Teatre Apolo Teatre Grec Teatre Lliure Teatre Poliorama Teatre Romea Parks Laberint d'Horta Parc de les Aigües Parc de la Ciutadella Parc de Diagonal Mar Parc de l'Espanya Industrial Park Güell Parc de la Creueta del Coll Parc Joan Miró Montjuïc Zoos Aquarium Barcelona Parc Zoològic de Barcelona Beaches Barceloneta beach Bogatell beach Mar Bella beach Nova Icària beach Nova Mar Bella beach Sant Sebastià beach

• Fundación Mies van der Rohe. "1929. The Barcelona Pavilion". Archived from the original on 25 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-14. 
• Views of the replica German Pavilion
• Image gallery on the Barcelona Pavilion
• Photos of Barcelona Pavilion and Barcelona Chair
• Werkbund Exhibition of 1927

External links

Further reading

References

• Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 was a world's fair held in Seville, Spain, from the 9th of May 1929 until the 21st of June 1930.

See also

• 

  The reconstructed Barcelona Pavilion

• 
• 

  Floor slab projecting out and over the water

• 

  One of the steel columns

• 

  The Barcelona Chair and unique wall materials

• 

  Alba by

  [1]

Gallery

Since the Pavilion's reconstruction in the 1980s, the Mies van der Rohe Foundation has invited leading artists and architects to temporarily alter the Pavilion. These installations and alterations, called "interventions", have kept the pavilion as a node of debate on architectural ideas and practices. The list of invited people includes architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa who added spiral acrylic interior walls,^[5] artist Ai Weiwei who refilled two pools with coffee and milk,^[6] Andrés Jaque ^[7] who revealed the pavilion's so far disregarded basement and its role in hiding the daily making of the site's experience, Enric Miralles, Antoni Muntadas who brought to the pavilion the smell of the MoMA archives where its memory is preserved and Jordi Bernadó who removed the pavilion's glass doors.^[8]

Interventions programme

The Pavilion was not only a pioneer for construction forms with a fresh, disciplined understanding of space, but also for modelling new opportunities for an association of free art and architecture. Mies placed ^[4] in the small water basin, leaving the larger one all the more empty. The sculpture also ties into the highly reflective materials Mies used—he chose the place where these optical effects would have the strongest impact; the building offers multiple views of Alba. "From now on, in the sense of equality for juxtaposing building and visual work, sculptures were no longer to be applied retrospectively to the building, but rather to be a part of the spatial design, to help define and interpret it. To the day, one of the most notable examples is the Barcelona Pavilion".^[3]

Sculpture

Because this was planned as an exhibition pavilion, it was intended to exist only temporarily. The building was torn down in early 1930, not even a year after it was completed. However, thanks to black-and-white photos and original plans, a group of Spanish architects reconstructed the pavilion permanently between 1983 and 1986.^[1]

Another unique feature of this building is the exotic materials Mies chooses to use. Plates of high-grade stone materials like veneers of Tinos verde antico marble and golden onyx as well as tinted glass of grey, green, white, as well as translucent glass, perform exclusively as spatial dividers.

Mies wanted this building to become "an ideal zone of tranquillity" for the weary visitor, who should be invited into the pavilion on the way to the next attraction. Since the pavilion lacked a real exhibition space, the building itself was to become the exhibit. The pavilion was designed to "block" any passage through the site, rather, one would have to go through the building. Visitors would enter by going up a few stairs, and due to the slightly sloped site, would leave at ground level in the direction of the Poble Espanyol. The visitors were not meant to be led in a straight line through the building, but to take continuous turnabouts. The walls not only created space, but also directed visitor's movements. This was achieved by wall surfaces being displaced against each other, running past each other, and creating a space that became narrower or wider.

^[2] Robin Evans said that the reflective columns appear to be struggling to hold the "floating" roof plane down, not to be bearing its weight.[1]