Description
barcelona chair
stainless steel frame
high density foam with leather or pu upholstery
by Mies Van Der Rohe
strong and durable
The modern city, with its towers of glass and steel, can be at
least in part attributed to the influence of architect Mies van der
Rohe. Equally significant, if smaller in scale, is Mies\' daring
design of furniture, pieces that exhibit an unerring sense of
proportion, as well as minimalist forms and exquisitely refined
details. In fact, his chairs have been called architecture in
miniature exercises in structure and materials that achieve an
extraordinary visual harmony as autonomous pieces or in relation to
the interiors for which they were originally designed.
Mies van der Rohe began his career in architecture in Berlin,
working as an architect first in the studio of Bruno Paul and then,
like Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, Peter Behrens. In the
mid****0\'s, he began to design furniture, pieces that he conceived
and created for particular interiors. In ***7, he met Lilly Reich,
a Bauhaus alumnus who collaborated with Mies on his first versions
of a cantilevered chair with a tubular steel frame. The
cantilevered chair had a curved frame that exploited the aesthetic,
as well as the structural possibilities of this material. Their
experiments culminated in the virtuoso Brno chair designed between
***9 and ***0 with a chromed flat steel frame.
Two years later, Mies and Lilly Reich designed what is perhaps his
most famous creation. Created for the German Pavilion at the
Barcelona International Exhibition, the Pavilion chair was intended
as a modern throne; a thick cushion upholstered in luxurious
leather and set upon a curved metal frame in the shape of an X
inspired by classical furniture. Perfectly proportioned and
finished, the simple chair exuded an air of elegance and
authority.
In ***8, Mies emigrated from Europe and moved to Chicago. The rest
of his career was devoted to promoting the Modernist style of
architecture in the U.S., resulting in rigorously modern buildings
such as the Farnsworth House and the Seagram Building, designed
with Philip Johnson. Perhaps the best summation of his work is
Mies\' own: thoughts in action.
