D60-2
Karl-Friedrich Schinkel

D60-2
A classicist garden bench

Schinkel’s garden bench, originally pro­duced in the (state-owned) royal iron foundry in Berlin, was a product of an industry which was developing rapidly thanks to the steam engine, an early mass-produced item made from a few parts and without a restriction in numbers: its function was to add to relaxation in gardens and parks, respite which the people who made the bench were initially able to enjoy only rarely, if at all. In formal terms, the side parts, with their centrally connected curved segments, point to an item of furniture which was designed almost a century later, the re-edition of which can now be found in many living rooms and apartments: the chair designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1928 for the German Pavilion at the World Fair in Barcelon.

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»Classicism was clearer and simpler in Prussia than elsewhere,« remarks product designer Dieter Rams on Schinkel’s New Pavilion in Charlottenburg Palace Park (1824/25). This classicism, as Schinkel understood it, was also a (contemporary) style, but above all part of a comprehensive environmental design that was intended to combine buildings and gardens into an industrialized garden realm and ultimately to modernize military-agrarian Prussia in terms of civilization.

Schinkel’s garden chair, originally produced in the (state-owned) Royal Iron Foundry in Berlin, is a product of the powerful industrial development brought about by the steam engine, an early mass-produced object made of a few parts with no limit on the number of pieces, whose function is to contribute to relaxation in gardens and parks, a relaxation which, of course, was initially not possible for the producers of the chair, or only on rare occasions. Formally, the side sections with their centrally connected curved segments point to a piece of furniture that was designed almost a century later and whose re-edition is still present as a status symbol in many lounges and homes: the armchair for the German pavilion presented by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1928 on the occasion of the World Exhibition in Barcelona.

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HGEsch Photography

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HGEsch Photography