Barcelona Chair
One of the most recognised objects of the last
century, and an icon of the modern movement, the Barcelona Chair is a tribute
to the marriage of design and craftsmanship.
As a rising figure of the modernist movement, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
was selected to design the Weimar Republic’s Pavilion for the Barcelona
Industrial Exposition of 1929.
Through masterful proportioning and planning, Mies created a rhythmic
and entirely unprecedented space, which elevated industrial-age materials to a
level of grace never before achieved. Inside, Mies included chairs and stools
conceived as a resting place for the King and Queen of Spain. Determined to
create a chair worthy of royalty, Mies is thought to have based the designs,
with their signature criss-cross frames, on the campaign chairs of Ancient
Rome. Mies: “I feel that it must be possible to harmonise the old and new in
our civilisation.”
Although the Barcelona Pavilion only stood for seven months, it is
recognised as a defining achievement of modern architecture, as are the
accompanying Barcelona Chairs (although the King and Queen reportedly never sat
in them).
Mies, a close friend and mentor to Florence Knoll during her time at the Illinois Institute of Technology, formally granted Knoll the production rights to the Barcelona Chair and Stool in 1953. The designs immediately became a signature of the Knoll brand and have been built to Mies van der Rohe’s exacting standards ever since.