Architecture and social program: the Barcelona Pavilion (1929-present)

Abstract

This article studies the Barcelona Pavilion designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in collaboration with Lilly Reich as an assembly of actors, experiences, and resources silenced, and develops it through a series of art and architecture installations. Among the interventions that manifest new interpretations of the past and present history of the building, the performance Casa Palestra (1986) by Rem Koolhaas, the photography Morning Cleaning by Jeff Wall (1999) or the installation Phantom (2012) by Andrés Jaque stand out. These works underline the more social condition of the Pavilion and provide a way to discuss and update this emblem of the modern movement. The apparent inability of this building to respond to the contemporary functional demands also concerns other examples of 20th century architecture such as the Neue Nationalgalerie or the Lemke House, also works by Mies van der Rohe. Studying and discussing these dissonances serves as a platform for the review of built architecture and the consolidation of alternative mechanisms of architectural thought and innovation.