The building that for many incorporates the essence of twentieth-century Modern architecture existed for only six months. Critics have called the Barcelona Pavilion a myth, an icon, an image. In this book, Josep Quetglas claims that it is a stage where the performance can only be described by ‘emptiness and the future’. And although what is true for theatre might not apply to architecture, the dramatic dynamics inherent in modern theatre's concern that the stage set should never repeat the text of the play do help explain the varied and contradictory interpretations of the Barcelona Pavilion.