German Pavilion at the Barcelona Exposition of 1929

COMMISSION, SITE, CONSTRUCTION, AND MATERIALS

The German Pavilion at the Barcelona International Exposition of 1929 was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The Barcelona Pavilion, as it is commonly known, opened on May 19, 1929 and was dismantled at the closing of the exposition in January, 1930. In 1986 the building was reconstructed at its original site.

The Pavilion had no function other than to represent the German nation at the exposition. The German industrial exhibits (the purpose of the exposition) were housed in the German Electrical Industry Pavilion which was also designed by Mies. All the exhibits were designed by Mies and his partner Lilly Reich. All the furniture, including the famous "Barcelona" chairs in the national pavilion, was also designed by Mies. Since it was an industrial exposition, however, and since Mies was charged with displaying German industr

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can still see inside and can, under the right conditions, see all the way through to the front of the building. Because of the tinting this is not a particularly clear view. Nonetheless, from this vantage point the south and north walls and the exit and part of the entrance can all be seen. In this pair of views it becomes apparent that every element in the Pavilion has some modifying effect on the natural illumination that reaches the interior of the structure. Light never penetrates the building without, in some manner, having its volume and intensity tempered in the process. Tegethoff notes how Kolbe's sculpture is "shielding her eyes against the brilliance of the sun" and provides a particularly apt photograph (though the figure appears to do so from any angle). He then goes on to speculate on an elaborate allegorical scheme that may be implicit in the sculpture and its relation to the Pavilion. But, more simply, the statue is a human figure standing in the direct sunlight that penetrates the most interior of all the spaces in the Pavilion. She is inside the Pavilion yet, as no human visitor can be, she is simultaneously standing in the unmodified light. She lacks the protection of the Pavilion's other spaces and, a
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Brick House, Lilly Reich, BARCELONA PAVILION, Barcelona Pavilion, Country House, Georg Kolbe, van der, mies van der, mies van, Pavilion Mies, van der rohe, Werner Mies, der rohe, Corbusier Mies, Industry Pavilion, glass wall, onyx wall, barcelona pavilion, gray glass, natural illumination, light wall, light reflected, van der rohe's, architecture columbia university, school architecture columbia,
Approximate Word count = 3199
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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