Bel meetings

Designers
& architects

Mies Van Der Rohe

Undeniably, by reshaping Chicago’s skyline with shimmering towers—what Mike Davis described as “the vertical arrogance” and “tombstones of our age of accelerated growth”—Mies van der Rohe gave form to his principle first stated in 1924: “Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.” His rationalist vision played a major role in shaping the modern world.

As the former director of the avant-garde Bauhaus, he developed a minimalist ethic captured in the mantra that came to define modernity and deeply influence both design and architecture: “Less is more.”

Instead of architecture that encloses space, he proposed clarity of structure—apparent simplicity and transparency, steel frameworks and glass façades, “skin and bones” yet refined in detail, materials, and spatial flow. The German Pavilion at the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition remains a landmark. In this glass-and-steel showroom, highlighting flexible space and the sumptuous use of materials, he introduced the prototype of his iconic Barcelona Chair, designed with his inseparable partner Lilly Reich in honor of the Spanish monarchs.

Bel Œil Barcelona Mies van der Rohe Knoll

Upholstered in leather, with a visible structure and polished chrome steel X-shaped frame recalling Roman curule seats and pharaonic thrones, its royal lineage has imbued it with prestige.

The legendary Barcelona Chair was reissued in 1952 by Florence Knoll, one of Mies’s students at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. It went on to become a symbol of the corporate design she pioneered in the 1950s to conquer the industrial and corporate market.

The Bouroullec Brothers