Barcelona chair


The Barcelona chair is a chair designed by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich, for the German Pavilion at the International Exposition of 1929, hosted by Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
The chair was first used in Villa Tugendhat, a private residence, designed by Mies in Brno.

Materials and manufacture

The 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.

Philosophy and ergonomics

Although many architects and furniture designers of the Bauhaus era were intent on providing well-designed homes and impeccably manufactured furnishings for the "common man," the Barcelona chair was an exception. It was designed for the Spanish Royalty to oversee the opening ceremonies of the exhibition and described by Time magazine as inhabiting "his sumptuous German pavilion." The form is thought to be extrapolated from Roman folding chairs known as the Curule chair upholstered stools used by Roman aristocracy. According to Knoll Inc., despite its industrial appearance the Barcelona chair requires much hand craftsmanship.

Current production

Since 1953 Knoll Inc has manufactured the Barcelona chair in both chrome and stainless steel. The chairs are almost completely hand-crafted, and each carries a facsimile of van der Rohe's signature, stamped into its frame.
Barcelona chairs are made by other manufacturers worldwide and are sold under different marketing names.

In popular culture

In his 1981 book about modern architecture, From Bauhaus to Our House, Tom Wolfe called the Barcelona chair as "the Platonic ideal of chair", and wrote that, despite its high price, owning one had become a necessity for young architects: "When you saw the holy object on the sisal rug, you knew you were in a household where a fledgeling architect and his young wife had sacrificed everything to bring the symbol of the godly mission into their home."