This sofa was designed for the Danish Pavilion at the Exposición Internacional de Barcelona that opened on 15 May 1929 and continued until 15 January 1930.

The frame is in Cuban Mahogany and the sofa is upholstered with goatskin leather covers for the loose cushions and with the frame itself covered with leather held along the bottom edge by closely-spaced, round-headed, brass fixing tacks used as a decorative feature.

In the l1920s and in the 1930s, Klint designed a number of sofas and most with legs between the different sections …. so the two-seat sofas have six legs and the three-seat sofas eight legs and most with cross bracing forming a cross below the seats. Here, in the two-seat sofa, there are stretchers set back from the front line of the front legs allowing people to tuck their feet back without touching the stretcher as they are sitting in the sofa or when they are standing up.

Stretchers are chamfered on the under edge partly to reduce the apparent thickness but also to strengthen the vulnerable edge which is more likely to splinter or dent if it is left as a sharp angle. The underside of lower frame are also shaped up inside the housing with the legs and the line of brass tacks follows and emphasises this line.

The sofa has thin upholstered end pieces as arm rests that ramp up at the back to the higher bank panel and thin loose cushions at each side mirror this shape. There are double cushions on the seat, the top cushions with down for comfort. There are also soft loose cushions for the back rest.

The pavilion itself was designed by Tyge Hvass and took as a starting point Danish vernacular architecture of the 17th or 18th century. The exterior was painted red and the simple building had a pitched roof covered with clay pantiles.

Lighting for the pavilion was from Louis Poulsen and was designed by Poul Henningsen.

two-seater sofa 1929
designed by Kaare Klint (1888-1954)
made by the cabinetmaker Rud. Rasmussen
identified in the catalogue of the Design Museum as sofa model 4035

Cuban mahogany with goatskin leather and round-headed brass fixing tacks.

height: 86 cm (34 inches)
width: 137 cm (54 inches)
depth: 74 cm (29 inches)

the Danish Pavilion at the Exposición Internacional de Barcelona in 1929

mies van der Rohe barcelona pavilion sepia copy.jpg

the German Pavilion in Barcelona designed by Mies van der Rohe

a three-seat sofa without loose cushions and with the cross bracing below
this is Model no. 4118 designed for the office of the Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning
Klint designed a two-seat version of this for the Ny Carlsberg Foundation in 1930 with the same shape of end but with leather upholstered cushions closely buttoned so
an interesting amalgamation of the 4118 and the Barcelona two-seat sofa

H C Ørsteds Vej by Thorkild Henningsen 1931
Store Mølle Vej by Frode Galatius 1938
Storgården housing scheme by Povl Baumann & Knud Hansen 1935
Ved Volden, Christianshavn by Tyge Hvass and Henning Jørgensen 1938
Sortedams Dossering by Ib Lunding completed in 1938

Extensive use of concrete and steel for the construction of buildings in the 20th century - from the late 1920s onwards - meant that the outside walls - the facades of a building - became less crucial for supporting the weight of walls and the upper structure - particularly the weight of the roof - and walls could be broken through and pierced with larger and wider openings until the outside wall can, in some buildings, disappear completely with all the weight of the building taken on piers in steel or concrete that were set within the building or with the structure depending on strong internal cross walls.

Particularly for apartment buildings this meant that wider and wider windows could be constructed, sometimes in metal, often made in a factory - even when they are in wood - and then brought to the site, so standardised and by using reinforced concrete, balconies could be cantilevered out from the facades and became larger and, in many buildings, much larger so that they become a dominant feature.

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