In the year 1928, sketches for the Barcelona Chair first appeared alongside with other seating solutions which Mies was experimenting with at the time. Inspired by classical forms, the Barcelona Chair’s basic, scissor-shape design (curule seat) dates back to 1500 BC. A reprised form, examples of the curule seat have been found in Egyptian, Greek and Roman designs throughout history, often with strong connections to seats of power. Such is the iconic status of the Barcelona chair that it has its own page in the Barcelona Yellow Pages and furthermore, it is one of the oldest modern classics still around. It was designed in 1929 for the Spanish Royal Family by a German designer named Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. For that, Mies is regarded as a pioneer of modern furniture. His style was deceptively simple with clean lines and he used modern materials such as stainless steel and plate glass in his builds, which he referred to as "skin and bones" architecture. He came up with a set of pioneering designs in the search for a style that would be suitable for the modern industrial age. While many of his ideas remained unbuilt, in 1929 he was asked to design the German Pavilion for the Barcelona Exposition. As part of his design, he made two chairs for King Alfonso XIII and his wife Ena, in case they required a rest while visiting. Aware that King Alfonso XIII would be in attendance, Mies also famously said that the Barcelona Chair would be "fit for a king," giving way to the misconception Barcelona Chair was designed as a monarchic object an idea since largely discredited by scholars. According to the aforementioned Yellow Pages, Mies drew his inspiration from an Egyptian folding chair and a Roman folding stool. It was supposed to project throne. Unfortunately, the royal couple never sat in the pavilion. The following year, he was appointed director of the Bauhaus school until 1933, when it was shut down by the Nazis. Four years later, he moved to the United States and eventually became an American citizen. Originally made for display, only two iterations of the Barcelona Chair were specifically designed for the Barcelona Pavilion. Through their incorporation, Mies sought a formal a solution to accompany the free-standing walls and planes of the Barcelona Pavilion, intended to symbolize the new progressive spirit of the Weimar Republic. Mies said that the design had to be more than a chair, but “a monumental object. As organizational elements, the chairs and accompanying ottomans were positioned throughout the pavilion as fixed pieces which Mies intended for them to remain in place.
After a drawn out process, Knoll successfully obtained a federal trade dress protection for five pieces designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, including the Germany Barcelona Chair and Ottoman, in 2004. Trade dress protects the “total visual image” of a product, affording the recipient with stewardship of the product in the marketplace. The measure has been essential to protecting Mies’ designs from inelegant, unauthorized copying.
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