In addition to the iconic Barcelona Chair itself, the Barcelona Series also includes the Barcelona ottoman, the Barcelona Loveseat, Barcelona Sofa, Barcelona benches, and matching Barcelona Coffee and Barcelona Side Tables.

A singular expression of personal style. The Barcelona Chair has come to represent the best of the Bauhaus design movement. Much more than just furniture, the Barcelona Chair is functional art.

The Barcelona Chair is an exceptional piece of modern furniture offering a unique synthesis of good taste and luxury.

Designed by Mies Van der Rohe and his long time partner and companion Lilly Reich the Barcelona chair is commonly incorrectly attributed to Mies alone.

It is perhaps strange to our way of thinking today, but this icon of modernist style was actually designed in 1929.

Mies was commissioned by the German Government to design the German Pavilion at the Barcelona World Arts Fair at Montjuic in Spain. The building itself is perhaps the epitome of modernity. Shockingly modern even by todays standards - it must have looked posititvely futuristic to the Fair's visitors of the day. Built of glass, steel and three types of marble, its linear simplicity is characterized by great flowing expanses, unbroken planes of each material, juxtaposed beside one another.

Having completed the design for the building, Mies and Lilly began work on the furniture for its interior. In an interview the year after the fair Mies said the following regarding chair design: "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" Mies 1930.

The exhibition was an occasion of international importance, attended by the Spanish Royal family as well as many government officials from around Europe. Mies was well aware of this significance and of the challenges that faced him when he set about designing the Barcelona chair for the Pavilion, commenting that this was to be "an important chair, a very elegant chair and costly. It had to be monumental. You couldn't just use a kitchen chair" Mies 1929.

The Barcelona chair, designed for the Pavilion is said to have been inspired by both the folding chairs of the pharoahs and the X shaped footstools of the Romans. This regal and formal lineage was quite fitting and was no doubt intentional, affording this modern design an intellectual and cultural weight that would have been all the more obvious in such a futuristic environment.

Indeed the Barcelona chairs became thrones when the Spanish Royals visited the German Pavilion and sat in them for a time, (they were the only chairs in the whole building).

The originals Barcelona Chair pre-dated stainless steel and seamless (ground) welds so the legs had to be bolted together. The leather used in those first examples was pig skin, and the color of the chairs in the Pavilion was ivory. But todays Barcelona chair is not so very different. Mies re-designed the Barcelona chair in 1950 three years after the death of Lilly Reich, making use of the newly developed material - stainless steel. This allowed the frame to be formed from a single piece of metal, and so it was that the bolts of the original were replaced by the smooth lines that we know and love today.

The Barcelona chair, sometimes referred to as the Pavilion chair, quickly gained a reputation as design worthy of kings. It went into commercial production almost immediately and has remained in production ever since.

Philosophically mid century modernists including Mies generally subscribed to the idea that modern furniture should be accessible to the masses, both financially and aesthetically. However the Barcelona chair is an exception to this rule. The materials and construction are too expensive, too labor intensive and therefor too costly to make it widely accessible, and furthermore its regal bearing and associations with royalty gave it an instant cashe that has grown rather than diminished with time, and since the 1930's the Barcelona Chair has endeared itself to the rich and famous and the wealthy rather than to the masses.

The Barcelona sofas, benches, coffee and side table were not designed by Mies, but true to his design, they use the same legs, and the seats use the same quilted and piped leather upholstery. The high quality leather, (cow rather than pig skin today) is hand sewn, individually stitched and piped, requiring some 28 hours of highly skilled labor to produce.

Materials: The buttery leather in this Barcelona chair is hand sewn, individually stitched and piped, requiring some 28 hours of highly skilled labor to produce.
Full leather - comes in full grain Italian leather on all sides of both cushions. (with a breathing vent on the back of the seat cushion).
The Analine option of the Barcelona Chair has full aniline dyed leather (Black only) throughout, (with a breathing vent on the back of the seat cushion). ADD $300 to base price
The frame is made of 100% highly polished stainless steel.

If you are looking for more information about types of leather and leather related terms please see our Leather Terms Glossary

If you are still confused about the different types of Barcelona Chair available and are looking for a little objective clarification you might want to read the article entitled Knoll or Knock off, the Barcelona Chair Debate