Beautiful Failures is a site-specific intervention that investigates fragility and vulnerability through two of the most delicate materials used in the construction of the Barcelona Pavilion by Lilly Reich and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: glass and travertine. Seventeen travertine paving slabs lifted out of their spaces reveal seventeen voids. Around them are placed a series of discarded glass pieces salvaged from artisan glassblowing workshops in Barcelona and grouped by the students into seventeen families, based on their morphology.
The new landscape resulting from the partial removal of the pavement, and its relationship with the rejected glass pieces, show similarities with an archaeological stratigraphic excavation. Understood simultaneously as a ritual of burial and revelation, the temporary intervention in the pavilion sets up a cycle of birth, death and rebirth in which all the elements play an important role: from the history of the pavilion—understood not just as a replica, but as a living entity, implicit in the actions involving the travertine—to the life force concentrated in each of the pieces of glass.
Taking into account the marked idiosyncrasy of the German Pavilion by Lilly Reich and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and its reflective intent in terms of materiality and tectonics, we proposed a material decodification of this emblematic work of modern architecture. Mies and Reich’s material choices and how they were deployed in the original 1929 project, along with the historical context and the tectonic changes that were made in the 1986 reconstruction, served as the foundation for the final proposal for the space.
Imagining the dismantling of the pavilion in January 1930 invited us to visualize the beautiful materials in a heap, while exploring the idea of a frustrated idyllic architecture. With the intent of tapping into this ruinous genealogy with a proactive attitude, we focused on working with the most vulnerable materials in the reconstructed building: travertine and glass.
The project was based on two actions involving two materials: the addition of glass (Outside the Pavilion, developed during the 2019-20 academic year) and the subtraction of travertine (Inside the Pavilion, 2020-21 academic year).
Through this complementary action, we emphasized the pavilion’s own fragility and related it to the fragility of the cast-off glass pieces. This gesture aligned with our current historical moment of precariousness and allowed us to understand fragility, vulnerability and imperfection as desirable. In fact, the action revealed some truths about the pavilion. It uncovered, demonstrated and exhibited some of the constructive differences between the current building and the 1929 initial version, demonstrating the otherness of the space. In the face of a world showing clear tendencies toward disorientation and fake news, we believe these approaches are necessary.
The installation consists of 17 raised travertine slabs that reveal the under-space resulting from a construction system that differs from the structural solution used for the original pavilion. These 17 voids contain defective pieces of glass from artisan workshops in the city of Barcelona. The glass pieces correspond to a collection of nearly 2,000 units discarded by artisan glassblowers’ workshops and recovered by the students, who grouped them into families of 17 different morphologies. All the pieces are made of borosilicate glass of German origin which cannot be recycled locally and thus ends up in landfills.
From the initial 1,975 pieces, 1,126 (57%) of the glass pieces were selected, sorted, and measured. Of those 1,126, 258 were photographed to be featured in the catalogue, 23% of the total amount.
On 20 February 2020, sound recordings were made at Ferran Collado’s borosilicate glass studio at Carrer Galileu 163, Barcelona, with a glassblowing torch. Later, glass failures collected from the same place were recorded being subjected to events such as pressure, vibrations, falls, impacts, scratches and cracks.
Together, these sounds formed the basis for what would become a musical narrative on the life cycle of glass in two interrelated parts dealing with the life and death of the material.
The resulting musical piece, made using glass sounds from these recordings, is structured into different channels, each exploring unique attributes of glass. One highlight moment per channel was then marked, and we created a circular configuration for the score using a polar operation in order to enhance the relationship between the glass life cycle and the loop function of the musical score.
(A) Selected sounds to highlight preludes, verses, and denouement. Workshop owner voice and crystal beats. (B) Glass beating supporting dramatic moments, birth and death. (C) Dramatized sound, creeping and crawling action with glass. (D) Dramatized sound, ripping, beating and cracking action with glass. (E) Rhythmic percussion with sounds recorded in studio. (F) Selected sounds for verses, and denouement. Crystal beats and falling glass sound. (G) Melody made of sound, recorded using a glass with water in it. Articulated with bass notes. And changes in the attack sound property. (H) Melody made of sound recorded using a glass with water in it, articulated with notes.(I) Overlapped rhythmic percussion with sounds recorded in the borosilicate workshop. (J) Background sound, workshop ambience. Blowtorch, wheel and indistinct voices. (K) Overlapped background sound, workshop ambience. Blowtorch, wheel and indistinct voices. (L) Wheel as a melodic instrument, articulated with notes. (M) Melody made of sound recorded using a glass with water in it, articulated with notes. (N) Rhythmic compositions of blowtorch and wheel sound recordings. (O) Glass sound helps to dramatize the climax by ripping and cracking glasses. (P) Rhythmic percussion with sounds recorded in the borosilicate workshop. (Q) Selected sounds for verses and denouement. Crystal beats and falling glass sound.
Audio and Midi Tracks
Singular Audio Elements
I01 Percussive sound accident simulation. J02 Torch sound for tense environment. L03 The start of the wheel with a rhythmic sound. G04 Long silence precedes melodic change. K05 Long final silence of the torch symphony. G06 Beginning of percussive rhythms in the workshop. P07 Rhythmic bass volume increase. B08 Sounds of broken glass mark the change in the glass melody. H09 Abrupt stop of blowtorch sound. M10 Glass 1 stops abruptly looking for a tense moment. N11 Glass melody 2 stops abruptly supporting glass melody 1. O12 Shrill sound for state change. F13 Silence prelude to the harmonic melody. D14 First steps of glass, creeping sound. F15 Beginning of a continuous rhythm but at the same time broken. E16 Rhythm of the glass as a bell begins with the panorama of spatial perception. C17 Glass crawling, moment of death, closing of the cycle.
Following the exploration of the glass from outside the pavilion, we began a material study of the travertine slabs inside the pavilion.
Tracing the edges, the cracks, the breaks, the resin repairs in an almost meditative action, discovering the pavilion through a micro lens, an animal perspective.
Using the mediation plan created from the glass study, we focused on the 17 slabs marked for intervention opportunities. The group generated large-scale frottages with paper and graphite, foil imprints, and clay casts.
In deconstructing the work created at the pavilion, then reconstructing it in a studio environment and digitizing it, the sense of scale shifted again, altering the perspective.
The intervention plan was a coming-together of the musical score, the clay casts, and the glass families.
cuddled scraps of dust
falling from carbonate rocks
from waters high and low
heated by the Earth’s core
scars, breaks, cracks
in white, tan, rusty skin
fleshy locked, breathing still
exhaling subterranean gasps
piling up in fitful lumps
let there be light
blown borosilicate glass rubble
silica plus boron oxide
shaped through Hephaestus’ breath
god of fire, volcanoes, god of crafts
filling you with silent voices
that separates air from turmoil
formless substance
cremates in a viscid way
glass bewitches
fading to a dancing mineral
molecules mistake their place
crystalizing in a frail aplomb
incisive edges calling danger
trauma echoes:
first steps of glass, creeping crash
crystal beats and falling ashes,
tools dinging, fire melting, silica and gas
silica is everywhere in sand
radiating from all Earth crust
crust, glass, sand, dust, travertine
calcium carbonate, silicon oxide,
fluxing agent, all at once,
singing, bouncing, breaking the floor
shouting, blowing, flaming, caressing all!
glass and travertine honoring a rite
between discovery and mourning
between care and what’s revealed (to u)
an archaeological mesh excavation
or an awkward treasure from the ancient times
a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth
life embracing death
celebrating their shadows
longing that nothing and everything last
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Beautiful Failures would not have been possible without the support and generosity of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, and specifically Anna Ramos, Ivan Blasi, Víctor Sánchez and Marc Quintana. Valentina Pulian also deserves a special thanks for her sensitivity and attention in designing the book. Several glass artisans from Barcelona played an important role in collaborating with us: Vidra Foc, Alex Añó and specially Ferran Collado, whose workshop sounds were recorded to create the soundtrack. Most importantly, we would like to extend our gratitude for the effort and extraordinary involvement of the Elisava MEATS students 2019-20 and 2020-21, without whom this project would not have existed: Dalia Al-Akki, Agustina Angelini, Jana Antoun, Juan Arizti, Momen Bakry, Dastan Bissenov, Marta Borreguero, Elena Caubet, Ines Fernandez, Malak Ghemraoui, John Gillen, Tanvi Gupta, Stephanie Ibrahim, Tracy Jabbour, Yunling Jin, Liana Kalaitzoglou, Jad Karam, Gal·la Knoph, Selen Kurt, Julia Llorens, Alexa Nader, Joelle Nader, Assil Naji, Mokshuda Narula, Elsa Romero, Chloë Rood, Tiago Rosado, Eirini Sampani, Montserrat Sevilla, Brentsen Solomon, Giulia Tufariello, Irini Vazanellis, Kuan Yi Wu and Alexandra Zaitceva.