Barcelona Chair and Ottoman
Thu, Jun 3, 2010
Barcelona Chair and Ottoman
The Barcelona chair was exclusively designed for the German Pavilion, that country’s entry for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, which was hosted by Barcelona, Spain. The design resulted from collaboration between the famous Bauhaus architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his longtime partner and companion, architect and designer Lilly Reich, whose contributions have only recently been acknowledged. An icon of modernism, the chair’s design was inspired by the campaign and folding chairs of ancient times.
Lilly Reich began working for the Deutscher Werkbund in 1912, an organization whose raison d’etre was to focus specifically on the German design industry, its quality, evolution and promotion. Reich was responsible for designing and organizing many of the Werkbund’s international exhibitions, and in 1921 became the organization’s first female member.
Reich and van der Rohe met in the mid-1920s and collaborated on many of these exhibition design projects until he departed for the United States in 1938. While Reich always deferred to van der Rohe in public, the reverse was said to have been the case in private. While it is naturally difficult to apportion the contributions that each made to a particular design, it is interesting and poignant to note that van der Rohe never again produced any furniture designs after their partnership ended, nor had he designed any furniture beforehand. His first patent on a furniture design was issued in 1927 and his last in 1937.
Reich’s affiliation with the Deutscher Werkbund and her architectural work with van der Rohe on their exhibition design and furniture design made them the natural choice for the Commission to design the German Pavilion in Barcelona.
Materials Used in Barcelona Chair
The Barcelona Chair frame was initially designed to be bolted together, but was redesigned in 1950 using stainless steel, which allowed the frame to be formed by a seamless piece of metal, giving it a smoother appearance. Bovine leather replaced the ivory-colored pigskin which was used for the original pieces.
The functional design and elements of it that were patented by Mies in Germany, Spain and the United States in the 1930s have since expired. The Barcelona chair was manufactured in the US and Europe in limited production from the 1930s to the 1950s. In 1953, six years after Reich’s death, van der Rohe ceded his rights and his name on the design to Knoll, knowing that his design patents were expired. This collaboration then renewed popularity in the design.
Knoll claims to be the current licensed manufacturer and holder of all trademark rights to the design. In 1965, Knoll purchased the trademark rights to the Barcelona word from Drexel. In 2004, Knoll received trade dress rights to the design from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Despite these trademarks, a large replica market continues. Gordon International New York has continued to manufacture the designs since the 1970s, even after a court battle against Knoll in 2005. In 2008, another court battle erupted between Knoll and Alphaville Design California; the outcome is pending Summary Judgment in Federal District court.
Tags: Barcelona Chair, Barcelona Chair and ottoman, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
March 4th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
I am really impressed with Mies Work. Please keep up to promote his work.
March 11th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
Excellent Video and information on Barcelona Chair
March 17th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
nice fantastic website yea nice job our website will soon be adding reviews on blogs and add them to our blogs as the top best 50 blogs to visit we also do reviews on Customer Reviews all types of reviews thank you
March 17th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
yo excellent blog yea nice work. I did not expect this on a Wednesday. This is a great story. Thanks!
March 18th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
The perfect tattoo… the one I believe we are all struggling toward… is the one that turned the jackass into a zebra. ~Cliff Raven Barcelona Chair by Mies Van der Rohe
March 18th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
HI Thank you for your help!
March 18th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
Hey very nice blog!! NEAT
March 18th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
Hi, i just thought i’d post and let you know your blogs layout is really messed up on the K-Melon browser. Anyhow keep up the good work.
March 18th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
Hi good website yea nice work good good
March 20th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
Thanks for great article dear.
April 8th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
I glad to read this information, That is useful to me for choose some furniture and Barcelona Chair
April 9th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
I want to add little more information on Barcelona Chair:
Designed by Mies Van der Rohe and his long time partner and companion Lilly Reich the Barcelona chair is mostly misattributed to Mies alone.
It is perhaps difficult to comprehend today, but this icon of modernist style was actually designed in 1928. The chair was created as furnishing for one of Mies’s many architectural jewels: The German Pavilion building at the Barcelona World Fair 1929.
The Barcelona chair that he designed for the Pavilion is said to have been inspired by both the folding chairs of the Pharaohs and the X shaped footstools of the Romans. This regal and formal lineage was quite fitting and was no doubt intentional, affording this modern design an intellectual and cultural weight that would be appreciated by the highly educated audience, and would have been all the more obvious in such a futuristic environment.
Although the chairs may conceptually have been intended to be thrones for the visiting royals, the general consensus is that they did not actually sit in them. However the Barcelona chair, sometimes referred to as the Pavilion chair, quickly gained a reputation as a design worthy of kings.
April 15th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
This is truly epic! Thankyou for posting this!!!
April 20th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
[...] of the Paran¡ River and has 1,025,000 residents. The third most populated city of the country,Barcelona Chair and Ottoman Barcelona Chair By Mies van der …The Barcelona chair was exclusively designed for the German Pavilion, that country’s entry for the [...]
April 20th, 2010 at %I:%M %p
Such a usefule blog on Barcelona Chair…wow !!!!
April 12th, 2011 at %I:%M %p
A marriage of old and new, The Barcelona Chair (aka Pavillion Chair) has become not just a design classic but a monument to German Modernism. The Barcelona chair is visually appealing, is comfortable and is ideal for most of the surroundings ranging from a classroom to any corporate office, for its versatility.
Barcelona chair is a chair that is both trendy in design and yet very functional. Anyone seated in the chair will enjoy the comfort that it offers, plus the feeling of safety that envelopes one while seated thereat. The design is both modern and retro in nature.
The quality and comfort are beyond anything that one has ever sat on. The leather is so smooth and soft and the cushions look like they are one with the frame because of how well-made they are.
The chair was created to replicate a throne and made its first appearance during the inaugural ceremony by the Spanish royal family at the exposition.
The Barcelona chair exudes grandeur and class and at the same time it is light and strong. The use of minimalist and sleek lines shows its trendiness, while the quilted cushion design is reminiscent of the design features of furniture in the 1960s and 1970s.The Barcelona chair is considered by common consensus to be the pinnacle of a harmonized approach to materials, design, and workmanship.
The Barcelona chair has a Green guard certificate, which means that it is eco-friendly and not made from cheap material that releases harmful substances into the atmosphere.