Barcelona Pavilion

As Barcelona Pavilion ( alemany Catalan Pavelló, German Pavilion 'or Pavelló Mies van der Rohe ) is referred to the exhibition pavilion of the German Reich at the World Expo 1929 in Barcelona ( Exposició Internacional de Barcelona), the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) designed. The German pavilion served the self-representation of the Weimar Republic and should by its novelty and precision symbolize the power of German industry and the craft. Not least because of his reconstruction of the pavilion is confirmed as one of the architectural icons of the 20th century.

Construction

The building, which should be the style for modern architecture, Mies van der Rohe realized two of its fundamental design principles:

• In the "free plan " were freed from its supporting function walls with light partitions or the surfaces in the room.
• The " flowing space " joined by the almost transparent-looking walls with their large glass fronts and filigree steel supports the living area to the outdoors.

Similar style elements and the basic ideas can be found in the same time incurred Villa Tugendhat.

The reinforced concrete roof rested on delicate steel columns, between which wall panels and glass panels from the ceiling reaching to the ground. Floor, roof and wall area not enclosed space, but gave only marginal notes. The result was a clear structure, but allowed different spatial contexts.

Outside there is a pool of water was applied in the middle of the female bronze figure " The Morning " by Georg Kolbe from the water rose (present location of the sculpture: Ceciliengärten in Berlin). The bottom of the water basin was lined with black glass plates.

For the walls and the floors travertine and serpentinite were used, as well as onyx for an interior wall, further Tinos verde antico from the green Tinos. All plates were fixed with a stone facade anchoring.

World's Fair Pavilion, detail

Interior of the pavilion

Barcelona chair with reddish onyx marble wall in the background

Kolbe's sculpture Morning in the pool

Sculpture as the vanishing point of the lines of sight of the pavilion

Mies van der Rohe designed the furniture for this pavilion, of which the Barcelona Chair became world famous ( frame drawn flat steel, chrome plated, button upholstery, loose cushion, leather version).

Rebuilding

After the end of the world exhibition, the pavilion was demolished in 1929, and the usable building materials were sold. Some parts of it are now in the old part of the Saxon Landtag in Dresden. Between 1983 and 1986, the city of Barcelona reconstructed under the supervision of architects Cristian Cirici, Fernando Ramos and Ignasi de Solà -Morales the pavilion after the original plans at the original location.

Many buildings will be understood as an interpretation of the Barcelona Pavilion, including the patch on the roof of the historic railroad bunker in Berlin pavilion construction.