An icon of architectural vision, Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion is a textural delight. Commissioned by the Weimar Republic for the International Exposition in Barcelona, the elegant and sleek design combined with rich natural material presented Mies' Barcelona Pavilion as a bridge into his future career, as well as architectural modernism.

Designed as a proportional composition, the interior of the pavilion is juxtaposed to two reflecting pools. The smaller reflecting pool is located directly behind the interior space, allowing light to filter through the interior volume as well as illuminate the marble and travertine pavers. The larger, shallow reflecting pool compliments the volume as it stretches across the rest of the plinth.

The materials are what give the Barcelona Pavilion its truly ethereal architectural essence. Marble from both the Swiss Alps and Mediterranean feature throughout, and a strong connection between the man made and the natural is developed through the seamless co-existence of marble, steel, chrome and glass throughout. Italian travertine wraps the plinth and exterior walls adjacent to the reflecting pool, which when exposed to the sun illuminates in the most ethereal way, acting almost as a secondary light source that dissolves the natural stone and washes the light over the space.