Home Improvements & Repairs

In a profession that goes more than half the 20th century, the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe made not only buildings but furniture as well. With the assistance of German interior designer Lilly Reich, Mies van der Rohe designed several furnishings for utilize in the interiors of his architectural projects. One design that is considered by many to be his best work in modern furniture is the so-called Barcelona chair.

The essential piece in the Barcelona furniture group, the Barcelona chair is a light steel chair created by Mies van der Rohe during 1928 and 1929. The chair was purposely-done for the German Pavilion, a momentary presentation building Mies van der Rohe made to epitomize Germany at the 1929 Salon d’ Automne art display in Barcelona, Spain (hence its name).

A leader of modern design, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair was definitely clear and unique. The chair’s cross-like frame is inspired on the ancient Egyptian folding chair and the Roman “sella curulis” magistrate’s chair, and completed from parts of chrome-plated steel. Barcelona Chairs made after the 1950s, but, featured stainless steel frames as stainless steel made it possible for the frame to be formed into just one piece. The cushions of the chair are finished from either natural or synthetic filling, and covered with white pigskin and black leather. And to set them firmly in place, the cushions are placed to the chair through specially-designed press stud fixings.

After its victorious introduction at the International Exposition, the Barcelona chair was reproduced in small numbers in Europe and the US until the 1950s, when Florence Knoll obtained the privileges to manufacture the chair from Mies van der Rohe. Now, the Knoll designer furniture company remains as a greatest manufacturer of the Barcelona chair, even if reproductions from other manufacturers are also widely available.

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