The Barcelona chair by was designed by Mies van der Rohe for the 1929 World Exposition in Barcelona. Leather straps were used to suspend leather-covered cushions from chrome plated steel frame.
The Barcelona chair was a custom design created for the King and Queen of Spain. This was used as an artistic statement to illustrate how negative space could be used to transform a functional item to a sculptural object.
"A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous." --Mies van der Rohe quoted in Time magazine, February 18, 1957.
One of the most common pieces of furniture that we use in our everyday life is a Chair. How many times so we try and find out how this chair came into existence. Some of the most sought after chair design has been designed by famous architects. Usually we associate architect with building design and we always try and distinguish the interiors designed by architects with that designed by Interior designers.
Some tend to argue that Architects are very rigid and lack imagination when it comes to designing interior space. On the other hand architects themselves consider interior design as mere of decoration. Following are a few of the chairs designed by some of the greatest architects of our times.
Frank Lloyd Wright once said that "Every chair must be designed for the building it will be in." This "Barrel Chair" made of natural cheery wood with an upholstered leather seat was designed in 1937 for Herbert Johnson's house and apparently was a rework on a design he created in 1904. Wright saw the chair as an architectural challenge and used tall straight chairs as screens around tables. Unlike many of his contemporary stalwarts, Wright believed that machines could actually enhance the designs.
The Taliesin armchair 1949 by Frank Lloyd Wright
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.Luwig Mies van der Rohe worked in an architectural firm before turning his hand to furniture, and good job he did as we wouldn’t have the fabulous Barcelona chair as seen propping up the bums of the entrepreneurs on Dragons’ Den. He was actually the director of the Bauhaus from 1930 until it closed in 1933 when the war kicked in and he scarpered to the US.
"A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous."--Mies van der Rohe, In Time magazine, February 18, 1957
Current production
Knoll manufactures the frame in two different steel configurations, chrome and stainless. The chair is almost completely hand-laboured. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's signature is stamped into each chair. Unauthorized reproductions proliferate worldwide and are sold under different marketing names.
Probably the most admired modern furniture style in history is the Barcelona concept by designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.I doubt there is anyone who has not seen or relaxed in the Barcelona chair that exudes a mid-century classic chrome and leather in a most timeless modernistic design. The Barcelona Bed collection draws from van der Rohe's aesthetics with a headboard and frame that are upholstered in soft, full grain aniline leather offering a stately and formal appearance. Expertly tailored, the individual leather squares are sewn together using the capitonne technique, detailed with piping over each seam and then buttoned to create a tufted appearance. Length: 86.5" Width: Q=64" K=80" Headboard Height: 42" Headboard Depth: 4" Frame Height: 12".
