Some modern documentaries about architecture can at times be grand and bombastic stories about starchitects and their achievements. There is instead a soothing quality in "Mies On Scene. Barcelona in Two Acts" by Pep Martín and Xavi Campreciós.
The documentary focuses on an iconic, idealised and idolised structure, the Barcelona Pavilion by Ludwieg Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich.
Built in 1929, the pavilion only lasted for eight months, yet it kept on inspiring further generations of architects.
Its legacy continued after it was recreated decades later in 1984, thanks to the joint effort of a team of architects (comprising also Fernando Ramos and Cristian Cirici), led by Oriol Bohigas, architect, urban planner and professor.
Through a series of interviews (with, among the others, Fritz Neumeyer, German architect, specialist in the work of Mies van der Rohe and author of the book Mies van der Rohe, the artless word; Eduardo Mendoza, Spanish writer and connoisseur of the history of Barcelona, and Xavier Rubert de Ventós, philosopher, writer and promoter of the Eu Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award), the directors try to discover the reasons why the simple structure changed the history of architecture.
The German Pavilion for the Barcelona International Exhibition of 1929 was designed at the time of the Weimar Republic with a precise aim in mind – presenting a modern country and a democratic and open society. Built in two months, the pavilion pointed at an artistic image of Germany, ruled by philosophical ideas and the art and design of the Bauhaus.
As the documentary develops we discover that the pavilion was based on simplicity, it was indeed characterised on the outside by two horizontal lines – a roof and a podium – and inside by a metal vertical structure and an open plan.
The structure features only four materials – travertine, two types of marble and onyx – each of them characterised by different textures, attached to the metal skeleton of the pavilion.
Classical and industrial materials combined with marble and reflective glass playing well with opacity and transparent dichotomies. The roof rests on steel columns and the columns carry the load, even though you don't immediately realise it, while the sculpture inside the pavilion becomes a part of the architecture, like a caryatid. The water incorporated inside the pavilion gives to it a sense of quietness and contributes to give movement to the space.
All these elements create a new modernist code inside the pavilion, calling to mind other structures such as the Seagram Building with its serene plaza (designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in collaboration with Philip Johnson and completed in 1958).
The pavilion remains a structure with a great transformative power: it seems to bring a message from another galaxy and another time and people walking through it experience an emotional perception of the space (choreographer Toni Mira did a performance in 2016 inside the pavilion).
Though the structure remains a revolutionary manifesto and an artistic statement in its modernist simplicity, it was surrounded by some controversies: Mies was not generous in acknowledging the contribution of Lilly Reich and of his other collaborators.
Researchers explain indeed that Mies was influenced by Reich for what regards the richness of colours and materials and Reich developed the interior concept and furniture for the space.
The fact that the current pavilion is also copy is also cause for further debates and discussions: though the structure was recreated following the original design and the team that rebuilt it paid attention at materials to recreate the infinite geometries and textures of its original walls (the story of the stonemason who embarked on an adventurous journey to Algeria to find the proper onyx is particularly intriguing…), some critics wonder if the building should have remained confined in the pages of a book.
In its defence it can be said that, having been recreated in Spain's post-Franco era, the pavilion ended up symbolising a new beginning for the city and an incentive for the future generations in Barcelona.
A liminal space between the past and the present, in our times Mies and Reich's building represents a perfect European combination, it is indeed a Germany pavilion, it was built in Barcelona but influenced international architects.
After featuring in the programme of the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR), "Mies on Scene" will be screened tomorrow at New York's Cinepolis during the Architecture and Design Film Festival (ADFF).
All images in this post from "Mies On Scene. Barcelona in two acts" © Fundació Mies van der Rohe