The pre-existent ionic columns are known to have been fundamental for Mies in the moment of choosing the placement of the soon to be German Pavilion. First of all, and most obviously, their scale made the urban connection between the ‘out of scale’ house-like-pavilion and the huge square in front of it. The contrast of scales was essential to the ambiguity of the original project and the colonnade helped the conscious sacralisation of the modern temple - the dwelling - and the advanced technologies and materials of that time. From the moment the colonnade was edited out not only the capability of urban recognition suffered tremendously, most importantly, the indirect nostalgic approach was lost. Even though the German Pavilion sounded a pure tone in
the midst of helpless, romantically nostalgic exhibitions and Mies aimed to prove that the function of representation was possible without icons or decoration, he still chose to vow to the classical tradition he was raised upon by placing his pavilion behind the schinkelian ionic colonnade.
The present proposal intents to restore the urban presence as well as, and mostly, to provoke the symbolic value of the columns in an unconventional way. In order to fulfil that challenge we recur to a provocative catchphrase of the 70s celebrated by Robert Venturi in the book Learning from Las Vegas: I AM A MONUMENT.
The proposed literary iconography would stand on the rooftop of the pavilion, in such a large scale and luminous materiality it would be hard not to notice it from a far. Most importantly, instead of a nostalgic, ornamented classical colonnade, the pavilion is presented with a nostalgic, expressive, almost too obvious, neon sign that reclaims its condition and follows Venturi’s recommendation for a monument. However, and in order to reemphasize the ambiguous and contradictory character of these miesian masterpiece, the word 'NOT' is included. Comprised in the most mysterious space of the whole structure - a central translucid glass box - the neon word opens up once again the unending discussion on the meaning (or meaningless) of form symbology, theme discussed throughout the modern movement and subsequent reactionary periods. Depending on the perspective and position of the observer the connotation of the venturian phrase might change radically, resembling and enhancing the effect that the ionic colonnade produced once upon time.
