The German Pavillion of Mies Van Der Rohe
The original 1929 pavilion building had an immense influence on the International Style of architecture.Despite this fact,however,it was destroyed the year after the International Exhibition when nobody wanted to buy it from the German Government.Later the Barcelona City Council has made a recreation of the original pavillion during 1981-1986.
The british architec and critic Kenneth Frampton describes the ‘ambivalent and ineffable quality of its spatial and material form… Certain displacements in its volume were brought about by illusory surface readings such as that effected by the use of green tinted glass screens, to emerge as the mirror equivalents of the main bounding planes. These planes, faced in polished green Tinian marble, in their turn reflected the highlights of the chromium vertical glazing bars holding the glass in place. A comparable play in terms of texture and color was effected by the contrast between the internal core plane of polished onyx… and the long travertine wall that flanked the main terrace with its large reflecting pool. Here, bounded by travertine and agitated by the wind, the broken surface of the water distorted the mirror image of the building. In contrast to this, the internal space of the pavilion, modulated by columns and mullions, terminated in an enclosed court, containing a reflecting pool lined with black glass.’
