The Gane Pavilion, also known as Gane's Pavilion, the Gane Show House and the Bristol Pavilion, was a temporary building designed by the modernist architect and furniture designer

Marcel Breuer Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981) was a Hungarian-American modernist architect and furniture designer. He moved to the United States in 1937 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1944. At the Bauhaus he designed the Was ...

with F. R. S. Yorke and built in 1936 at

Ashton Court Ashton Court is a mansion house and Estate (land), estate to the west of Bristol in England. Although the estate lies mainly in North Somerset, it is owned by the City of Bristol. The mansion and stables are a Grade I listed building. Other st ...

near

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

in England.

History

After leaving Germany, Breuer spent 1935–37 working in London for the

Isokon The London-based Isokon firm was founded in 1929 by the English entrepreneur Jack Pritchard and the Canadian architect Wells Coates to design and construct modernist houses and flats, and furniture and fittings for them. Originally called Wells ...

company, and in partnership with Yorke. At this time Crofton Gane was the proprietor of P. E. Gane, a Bristol furniture manufacturing company. He became interested in modernist design and gained an introduction to Breuer via Isokon's proprietor,

Jack Pritchard John Craven Pritchard (8 June 1899 – 27 April 1992) was a British furniture entrepreneur, who was very influential between the First and Second World Wars. His work is exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of London. He ...

. Breuer redesigned Crofton Gane's own house in Bristol. Gane commissioned the pavilion as a showroom to display his range of products at the 1936

Royal Show The Royal Show, also known as the Royal Agricultural Show, was an annual agricultural show held by the Royal Agricultural Society of England every year from 1839 to 2009. The event encompassed all aspects of farming, food and rural life - from ...

, which that year was held at Ashton Court. The five-day event opened on 30 June 1936. The pavilion, designed by Breuer and Yorke, was a flat-roofed building with planes of local stone and glass walls. The interior was finished with plywood. The pavilion's importance for modernism lay in innovations such as use of exposed stone for the walls, and the walls' arrangement in a free pattern allowing interior and exterior spaces to flow into each other. The pavilion's design was a precursor of some of Breuer's subsequent achievements in America. Breuer later stated that it was one of his two favourite works, after the

UNESCO Headquarters UNESCO Headquarters, or Maison de l'UNESCO, is a building inaugurated on 3 November 1958 at number 7 Place de Fontenoy in Paris, France, to serve as the headquarters for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ...

building in Paris.

References

External links

Crofton Gane and Modernism
{{coord, 51.4479, -2.6446, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Marcel Breuer buildings Buildings and structures in North Somerset Buildings and structures completed in 1936 Modernist architecture in England Former buildings and structures in Bristol 1936 establishments in England

History

See also

References

External links