Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich as Germany's pavilion at the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, this small building became one of the most important in the history of modern architecture. It was meant to present the new Weimar Germany as democratic, progressive and prosperous.
A thin, flat roof seems to float above a "free plan," where walls stand freely rather than holding up the building. Planes of glass, travertine, marble and red onyx slide past one another, and space flows freely between inside and out. In a small pool stands Georg Kolbe's statue Dawn. The Barcelona chair, still made today, was designed for this building.
The original pavilion was taken down in 1930, after the exposition closed. A reconstruction was built on the same site in 1986.
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