Monday, October 15, 2007

Barcelona Lounge Chair | By Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

The Barcelona Lounge Chair is a classic of 20th century modernist furniture design by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

He created the chair along with the related ottoman and table for his German Pavilion at the 1929 exposition in Barcelona, Spain. The chairs were seen as grand enough to be used as thrones for the Spanish Royal couple when they visited the Barcelona Pavilion.



The highly machined metal frame is made of polished stainless steel flat bar stock, while the seating surfaces were made of pigskin leather.

The outsize proportions and elegant form rendered the Barcelona Chairs more as sculptural objects in the gallery-like Pavilion. The clear articulation of the structural frame and the seat cushions as separate components, and the use of both traditional and modern materials where appropriate to their functional purpose, presage Mies' personal revisioning of International Style architecture in the United States.

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