What are your thoughts about this canonical site of modern architecture? Were there aspects of the structure that only became clear upon physically exploring it? How does it compare to that other monument of the International Style, the Villa Savoye? Do they feel like ‘birds of a feather’ or, in fact, do they feel worlds apart to you? What do you make of the very notion of rebuilding a vanished, ephemeral pavilion? For that matter, what did you make of our guide’s certainty that the Mies van der Rohe structure was of excellent quality whereas the large Spanish pavilion (now the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya) was shoddy architecture? How would you characterize (or supplement or rebut) this stance?
February 17, 2018
