Mies Van der Rohe pavilion in Barcelona

This is one of the most revolutionary buildings exposed in Barcelona during 1929 world trade exhibition.

This Pavilion is located at the base of Montjuic hill, very close to the magic fountains. In all this area, several countries set up an exhibition of their own cultural heritage. Back in 1929 the travel conditions were not as global as they are today, so the possibility to meet many people and artists in one single place was a huge event.

Around 20 European countries participated officially in this event, including Denmark, Sweden, Hungary or Belgium. Also Japan and United States had some representation through private exhibitions. All in all, there were more than 60 pavilions. Some venues were organized and set up by private exhibitions from local entities, some others were from international countries or public institutions.

The world trade lasted several days and was considered a big boost for the economy of the city since thousands of people, such as merchants, businessmen, artists or nobles, gathered from many countries to see all the news from the different and distant countries. In case you want to deep dive on this itinerary, we recommend taking a Montjuic private tour for small groups so you realize the big impact of this area in the new Barcelona.

However, this was not the first time a World exhibition was held in Barcelona, but the second. The first World Exhibition in Barcelona happened in 1888 and their buildings are on another side of the city, in the Ciutadella park area where very remarkable buildings were created like the Arc del Triomf or the tree dragon castle.

Back to the Mies Van Der Rohe Pavilion, it is considered to be one of the bit masterpieces from the German architect. The Pavilion itself was extremely different from the rest of the buildings. It was pretty small, with no big walls, and looked very empty. It was one of the first minimalistic buildings ever created, with an extraordinary simplicity and open spaces, the author was showing a new way to conceive space for events and meetings.

In its simplicity, we can see how the author, Mies Van der Rohe, was projecting the new concepts of space and materials. It was not part of the modernist art movement but the Bauhaus, a school of art that was born in Germany and influenced the modern architecture using the Art Deco as a baseline, it is considered as the base of many designs that would be very popular in the following 50 years since they wanted to use bring affordable designs and materials for everyone.

Unfortunately there are not many Bauhaus buildings around Barcelona but the Mies Van Der Rohe pavilion has been an inspiration for many architects since today.