This pivotal work of architecture was built as the German pavilion for the 1929 world fair. It was designed by modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The powerful minimalism was revolutionary at the time, and contrasted sharply with most of the other fair pavilions, which were quite ornamented and played off of historical styles. Mies van der Rohe, on the other hand, rejected conventional ornamentation, leaving the textures of materials to speak.
Although not symmetrical in plan, the pavilion is largely symmetrical bottom-to-top about a plane at eye level. The marble wall slabs shown above were cut from a single block so that the patterns above and bellow the center-line would mirror each other.
I had the opportunity to visit the Barcelona pavilion as part of a study trip, and my classmates were busy sketching.