room with a view: the barcelona chair
Thursday, October 29, 2009
I have a few guests stopping by soon whose rooms I know you're going to love, but we're going to have to wait until next week. It hit me that my 'Rooms That I Heart' flickr file is overflowing with rooms that I've fallen in love with around the web. I've been collecting these photos for a few years and it was interesting to go through all 122 and see which ones still make my heart sing.
{Sorry, I can't remember where I found this one}
Marc Jacobs' apartment in Paris
Still on my wish-list after 3 years. It's from Graham & Green
Now I know that a chair is not a room (and the last photo is a stool, not a chair), but there's something about this chair that has always moved me and in my mind can give a room a certain je ne sais quoi. I also find it interesting that the Mies Van de Rohe chair that I've been in love with for so long (and have put off acquiring because I can't bear the thought of seeing it become a cat scratching post) was designed around 1929. I have a very large collections of late 20s early 30s clothing thanks to my vintage dealer David, so I know there's something about that period that I'm drawn to.
I also love the story behind their conception. Some of you are no doubt very up on designer furniture and it's history, but just in case, I thought you might enjoy the tale: Ludwig Mies Van de Rohe was one of the leading modernist architects of his time. When the German government commissioned him to build a Pavilion at the 1929 Barcelona World Arts Fair, he created a glorious glass and steel building that used four kinds of marble. Then his mind turned to designing the furniture that would be used and this is where the blood sweat and tears happened.
Mies said he knew he needed to create "an important chair, a very elegant chair and costly. It had to be monumental. You couldn't just use a kitchen chair." A year after the event, he was quoted as saying, "The chair is a very difficult object. Everyone who has ever tried to make one knows that. There are endless possibilities and many problems--the chair has to be light, it has to be strong, it has to be comfortable. It is almost easier to build a sky scraper than a chair."
Bless his heart. And like all good stories, there's the wonderful payoff: the chairs ended up serving as thrones for the King and Queen of Spain when they visited the Pavilion. At the time the Barcelona Chairs were the only furniture in the whole building. Can you imagine how beautiful it must've been?
True to a modernist tale, there's also a delicious twist of irony: when Mies re-designed the original chair in 1950 in order to make use of stainless steel, it meant that the whole frame could be made from one fluid piece of metal. But Mies was a Bauhaus designer (meaning someone who believed in functional furniture that could be mass produced for the working class), and it turns out that the Barcelona Chair is actually both expensive and difficult to mass produce.
Is it just me, or do you find this whole story wonderfully gratifying as well?
Now I know that a chair is not a room (and the last photo is a stool, not a chair), but there's something about this chair that has always moved me and in my mind can give a room a certain je ne sais quoi. I also find it interesting that the Mies Van de Rohe chair that I've been in love with for so long (and have put off acquiring because I can't bear the thought of seeing it become a cat scratching post) was designed around 1929. I have a very large collections of late 20s early 30s clothing thanks to my vintage dealer David, so I know there's something about that period that I'm drawn to.
I also love the story behind their conception. Some of you are no doubt very up on designer furniture and it's history, but just in case, I thought you might enjoy the tale: Ludwig Mies Van de Rohe was one of the leading modernist architects of his time. When the German government commissioned him to build a Pavilion at the 1929 Barcelona World Arts Fair, he created a glorious glass and steel building that used four kinds of marble. Then his mind turned to designing the furniture that would be used and this is where the blood sweat and tears happened.
Mies said he knew he needed to create "an important chair, a very elegant chair and costly. It had to be monumental. You couldn't just use a kitchen chair." A year after the event, he was quoted as saying, "The chair is a very difficult object. Everyone who has ever tried to make one knows that. There are endless possibilities and many problems--the chair has to be light, it has to be strong, it has to be comfortable. It is almost easier to build a sky scraper than a chair."
Bless his heart. And like all good stories, there's the wonderful payoff: the chairs ended up serving as thrones for the King and Queen of Spain when they visited the Pavilion. At the time the Barcelona Chairs were the only furniture in the whole building. Can you imagine how beautiful it must've been?
True to a modernist tale, there's also a delicious twist of irony: when Mies re-designed the original chair in 1950 in order to make use of stainless steel, it meant that the whole frame could be made from one fluid piece of metal. But Mies was a Bauhaus designer (meaning someone who believed in functional furniture that could be mass produced for the working class), and it turns out that the Barcelona Chair is actually both expensive and difficult to mass produce.
Is it just me, or do you find this whole story wonderfully gratifying as well?
posted by Mary Jo at TrustYourStyle at
Thursday, October 29, 2009
I'm Mary Jo, a handbag designer living in sunny California. TrustYourStyle is where I share inspiration and connect with other style lovers. Did I mention I celebrate 
7 Comments:
I love that quote. "A chair is a very difficult object." Sounds like something the Buddha might have said.
I agree Lisa, there's something so satisfying about solving a difficult problem and doing it in a well-constructed elegant way. I completely relate--the shoulder of a couture jacket when it's not coming together can almost kill you.
I loved reading stories like this about common objects.
The lines of the chair are superb!
And it always amazes me how some people can create works of art out of the most ordinary of objects.
White on white is wonderful!
Betsy
i do and white just calms me so...
Great story! My best friend is seriously into design and has raved repeatedly about the divinity of the Barcelona Chair. It truly does add so much to those rooms!
iamemmamusic.blogspot.com
Barcelona chair interior design is really helpful in creating best beautiful interior design. i love this great Mies van der rohe chair design as a great German architect.
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