The Barcelona Chair: How Mies van der Rohe's 1929 Throne Became Uniquely Iconic

In the summer of 1929, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed a chair for a king. Not metaphorically — but for an actual king. Alfonso XIII of Spain was to attend the opening of the German Pavilion at the Barcelona International Exposition, and protocol required a throne-like seat worthy of royalty. Mies, then director of the Bauhaus and already one of the most ambitious modern architects in Europe, designed something that looked nothing like a throne and everything like the future. The clean lines of the chair reflected Mies's vision for a new kind of architecture. The pavilion itself had no ornament or historical reference. Just travertine, glass, water and light, and the chair was designed for just such a space.

The Barcelona Chair was never meant to be produced. It was conceived as a single piece of ceremonial furniture for a temporary building. The pavilion itself was scheduled for demolition after the exposition closed in 1930. The chair, by all logic, should have disappeared with it.

After the exhibition the chair exisited as only a few handmade pieces in Mies private collection but in 1953, Florence Knoll, who had studied under Mies, acquired the rights to produce the Barcelona Chair in New York.

By the 1960s popularity soared and the Barcelona Chair had become something Mies almost certainly never intended: a status symbol. It appeared in the lobbies of corporate headquarters, in the offices of architects and lawyers, in the apartments of people who wanted their taste to be visible from across the room. The chair's severity — its refusal of comfort in the conventional sense, its demand that you sit correctly — became part of its appeal. It announced seriousness.

Today this chair is both instantly recognizable and widely copied. Authentic vintage pieces or the original Knoll version are available for $5,000 to $10,000, while a replica can be had for $300. But whatever the price point, it is undeniable that the Barcelona Chair is an iconic piece of design history!

Adove: the 1929 Barcelona Pavilion / Mies van der Rohe / 1960's Lobby

Side note, if you are visiting Barcelona, the pavilion was reconstructed on its original site in 1986, fifty years after it was demolished. You can still visit it today, at the foot of Montjuïc, a short walk from where the 1929 exposition stood.

For a bit of modern inspiration, here are a few Barcelona Chairs spotted in the wild . . .