Bauhaus, Barcelona and Beyond
How one ‘house’, that stood for less than a year, profoundly changed the architecture that surrounds us now…
Chances are, if an architect is asked to name the most important building of the twentieth century, the likely answer will be, “The Barcelona Pavilion”. This quintessentially Modern structure occupied the space between austere, formal minimalism and elegant, material extravagance. It’s one of those monolith moments that informed what was to follow — a ‘before-and-after’ fulcrum in the history of architecture when a fusion of eastern and western ideas was set in stone.
The arts, crafts and aesthetics of Japan were the biggest single influence on twentieth-century Modernism. They were channelled into western design during the late 1870s via the conduit of Christopher Dresser’s own output and his import and export businesses. This had a knock-on effect in fine art when painters saw woodblock prints like Hokusai’s famous The Great Wave Off Kanagawa (1830s).
The age-old traditions of Japan seemed so fresh to eyes more accustomed to European visual culture and artists such as Aubrey Beardsley, Vincent van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, and Henri Matisse all absorbed aspects of oriental styles. By the interwar period, this influence had formed the foundations of Modernism…
