Table Of ContentBuilding
In 1986, a new Barcelona Pavilion was built on the site of the 1929 German
Pavilion. That decade also marked the 150th anniversary of photography and
the centenary of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969). Since then, much has
been published about all three, jointly and singly more than doubling the
combined literature on Mies from the preceding seven decades. Yet, the unique
photographic phenomenon of the Barcelona Pavilion remains relatively
unexamined. This book on the pavilion's mythography and mythology focuses
on a small group of canonical. photographs central to the stories that comprise
its complicity in the enduring myth of modernity.
George Dodds earned his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Detroit
and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.
A pre-doctoral fellow in Landscape Studies at Harvard University's Dumbarton
Oaks Library and Research Center in Washington, D.C., he has published and
lectured internationally on the history and theory of architecture, designed
landscapes, and gardens. He is on the Faculty of Architecture at the University
of Tennessee, USA, and serves several editorial boards.
Building
On the Barcelona Pavilion George Dodds
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Croup
LONDON AND NEW YORK
Frontispiece: Detail of Mies leaving the
First published 2005 by Routledge opening ceremonies for the German National
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, 0X14 4RN Pavilion at the Barcelona International
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge Exposition, May 26, 1929 (MMA 7361).
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 In the photograph, located above Mies
and his entourage, near the corner of the
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group pavilion's podium, stand a photographer
and his assistant, with tripod, camera,
© 2005 George Dodds
and assorted gear.
Typeset in FF Celeste and Univers by Sutchinda Rangsi Thompson
Printed and bound in China by Everbest Printing Co Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Dodds, George, 1958-
Building desire : On the Barcelona Pavilion / George Dodds. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-32523-4 (hb) — ISBN 0-415-32524-2 (pb)
1. Pabellón Mies van der Rohe. 2. Pavilions—Spain—Barcelona. 3. Mies
van der Rohe, Ludwig, 1886-1969—Criticism and interpretations. 4.
Architectural photography—Spain—Barcelona. 5. Architecture—Conservation
and restoration—Spain—Barcelona. 6. Exposición Internacional de
Barcelona (1929-1930)—Buildings. 7. Barcelona (Spain)—Buildings,
structures, etc. I. Title.
NA6750.B3D63 2004
725' .91'092—dc22 2004008253
ISBN 0-415-32523-4 (hb)
ISBN 0-415-32524-2 (pb)
For Joseph Rykwert and in memory of Ivan Illich (1926-2003)
Contents
Preface ix
Chapter 1 Mies 1
A Galaxy of Words/A Paucity of Images 2
A Cannon of Photographs: The Berliner Bild-Bericht Prints 8
Building as Biography 11
Pictures at an Exhibition 16
Iconography and Iconology 33
Lead, Silver, and Gold 40
Chapter 2 Another Kind of Fame 67
Surface and Desire 68
Buildings and Photographs of Buildings 72
Documentation and Depiction 80
Sky and Mirror 83
Desire and Dreams 84
Bodies and Light 91
Chapter 3 Weltbild and Bildwelt 105
Weltbild and Bildwelt 106
Raw and Cooked 107
What is Missing from this Picture? 108
The Red Curtain no
Truth and Fact 125
Postscript 143
Select Bibliography 149
Acknowledgments 161
Illustration credits 163
Index 165
vii
Preface
Biography is simpler than analysis. But of what interests us most it teaches absolutely nothing... .
And further! The true life of a man, always ill-defined for his neighbour, even for himself, can be only
utilized in an explanation of his works, indirectly and by means of very careful elaboration.
— Paul Valéry, Introduction on the Method of Leonardo da Vinci
ix
Detectives, at least the ones in pulp fiction, presume that everyone they
encounter is a suspect and most are lying. The many stories about the Barcelona
Pavilion play out much like a "whodunit?" with too many suspects and much
that seems suspect. Moreover, distinctions between truth and fact often seem
moot owing to a dearth of eyewitnesses, virtually no physical evidence, and the
absence of a corpus delicti Faced with these lacunae, speculation about the
Barcelona Pavilion abounds. There is nothing wrong perforce with speculation;
this book relies on it. Yet, when speculation is advanced as documentation
which, over time, is the foundation of further speculation, how does one
distinguish between looking in a mirror and passing through to the other side?
The story of the Barcelona Pavilion has become architectural history's most
influential "rabbit hole." I focus less on "debunking" myths however, than on
understanding the allure and meaning of these stories. This is not simply a
"whodunit?" It is also a "what was it?"
The historiography and mythography of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's
Barcelona Pavilion challenge the conventional boundaries of historical analysis.
Moreover, the completion in 1986 of the full-size replica, built on the site of the
1929 building, does more to obfuscate than to clarify the status of this cultural
icon. While several projects, lost buildings and events from the formative years
of what Charles Jencks calls architecture's "Modern Movements" oscillate in the
penumbra of architectural history and theory, the Barcelona Pavilion maintains
a unique status. Fundamentally influential for multiple generations of architects,
landscape architects, painters, and sculptors, its standing in the history of these
disciplines is as elementary as the specifics of its physical reality are ambiguous.
I explore the history and theory of this conundrum.
Theory, however, like history, is not everywhere the same, particularly in
the case of the Barcelona Pavilion. In The Mirror and the Lamp, M.H. Abrams
explicates an often misunderstood difference between theory in the arts and its
counterpart in the sciences. The aim of aesthetic theory "is not to establish
correlations between facts which will enable us to predict the future by reference
to the past, but to establish principles enabling us to justify, order, and clarify
our interpretation and appraisal of the aesthetic facts themselves."1 From this
perspective, the many theories about the Barcelona Pavilion explain less about
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