Contrary to our usual ranting, we don't just bitch about fashion stuff at The Real Runway, from time to time we like to get our worshipping hats on and celebrate all round class design. There are fewer iconic pieces of furniture design than the peerless Barcelona Chair. At over a staggering eighty years old, it's hard to acknowledge this awesome assembly of leather and steel is nothing other than contemporary, such is the chair's flawless, minimalist nature. So anyway, here's our TRR love letter to a pure design classic.

This Barcelona chair business began back in 1929 and was the lovechild of Bauhaus architects Ludwig Miles van der Rohe and Lilly Reich. Designed exclusively for the German Pavillion - the country's entry into the International Exposition (hosted in, you guessed it, Barcelona) the chair and accompanying ottoman's taut, quilted square reclining cushions juxtapose with the smooth curves of the steel frames, inspired by the ergonomic folding Roman Curule chairs. Even in its royal pavilion setting, the chair's minimal design knocked out visitors.

Much like a Chesterfield, Arne Jacobsen's egg chair or Salvidor Dali's lips sofa, the Barcelona Chair is that rarefied era-defying modernist classic which which transcends interior trends over the years and looked relevant and chic in any epoch. Think of any decade's interior fashions: the 60's, 70's or 80's and the BC somehow defines each of them. It's testament to its simultaneously futurist and timeless design that the Barcelona Chair will continue to look badass in many-a home over coming years.

Posted on March 14, 2012 at 5:07:38 by The Real Runway