Barcelona Chair

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.