intricate timber installation 'mass is more' reinterprets mies van der rohe's barcelona pavilion

‘Mass is More’ installation at the Mies van der rohe pavilion

Almost a century after the construction of the Barcelona Pavilion designed by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich, Daniel Ibañez and Vicente Guallart of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and Alan Organschi of Bauhaus Earth (BE) create a dialogue between past and future with their timber installation ‘Mass is More’. The exhibit, on view at the famed pavilion in Barcelona from October 1 to October 9, 2022, investigates the usage of green and carbon-reducing architectural materials in contemporary structures. By reconsidering the materials used in the original pavilion, this new installation explores how cities can be revitalized through the adoption of low-emission techniques to fulfill the EU’s environmental targets for the year 2050.

The event serves as a stage for the launch of MASS MADERA, a national network of pioneers whose main mission is to facilitate and promote the construction of green buildings and work towards the decarbonization of architecture. The pavilion also hosts the biennial European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Awards, underscoring the role and influence of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe in today’s architectural discourse.

all images courtesy of Adria Goula

exploring the capabilities of CLT panels from native forests

Echoing the architectural language of the pavilion, the installation by IAAC and BE creates a juxtaposition between the most advanced materials of the 20th and 21st centuries. Through a series of elements made of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels from native forests, the project demonstrates the structural capabilities of this new materiality and its suitability for constructing more sustainable buildings with far less environmental impact. The various interventions show how the use of wood and other regenerative materials can help reduce the high CO2 emissions that are associated with the construction industry. All elements of this installation were manufactured by Xilonor (find more here), the most advanced Galician CLT company in Spain, part of the FINSA Group.

digital diorama depicts the journey of wood

In addition to the physical installation, the exhibition features a 4.8-meter-long diorama depicting the journey of wood as a material with carbon-storing capabilities from forest to city. An interactive digital application developed by Bestiario (find more here) compares the environmental impact of the solid wood installation and the Barcelona Pavilion from 1929. Only architectural components such as the roof, walls, columns, and floor were taken into account in order to create a fair comparison between the two buildings. The analysis includes each element’s embodied carbon emissions as well as the energy used, the distance traveled, and the actions taken during the numerous extraction, manufacturing, transportation, and assembly operations. This digital work is accompanied by analog labels attached to various vertical elements of the two pavilions, indicating all the materials used in their production.

Visitors can also view a video installation by the filmmaker Jaume Cebolla that depicts the material changes the wood used to construct the mass timber structure underwent from a first-person perspective.

reflecting on the original design of the barcelona pavilion

With new walkways and view corridors, the installation’s design reinterprets the formal grid of the original pavilion to provide a novel narrative and a new way to experience the location. During the tour, visitors will be able to observe various applications and representations of wood as well as contemporary construction methods. Offering the ability to first traverse the trees in the garden behind the pavilion, the entrance to the area reverses the usual flow of traffic. An elevated walkway leads to a cantilevered platform with unparalleled views of the Barcelona Pavilion. From this platform, there is access to an auditorium where short meetings and discussions will take place.

In the pond of the pavilion is installed a 12 x 2.5 meter industrially manufactured wooden panel that illustrates the process by which in the 19th century the material was transported directly from the forest across the river to the factory. Inside the pavilion, the luxurious onyx center wall will be reinterpreted with new textures, made of a CLT panel of different wood species. To illustrate the original geometry of the marble, the slab will undergo a new digital milling process to create a warm and lush three-dimensional topography that reveals the different layers that make it up.

Finally, the exhibition that accompanies the space also contemplates and analyzes the different phases of the wood construction cycle through a model diorama, from the place where the trees used to make the pavilion are harvested, through extraction, processing and assembly, to the reforestation process that represents the regeneration and sustainable use of the material, looking at the subject from a radically transparent perspective.

The project was made possible by grants from Built by Nature (BbN), a philanthropic fund that aims to accelerate the transformation of wood construction in Europe by radically reducing sequestered carbon, safely storing carbon in our buildings for generations, and sequestering carbon by promoting forest management and regeneration.