Expressionist architecture
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Template:Modernarch Expressionist architecture occurs in architecture when an architect distorts a building or design for an emotional effect. Originally the term was used to describe a brief European architectural style of the first half of the 20th century, being the architectural response to Expressionism, but it has now taken on a broader architectural meaning. Expressionist architecture occured as a movement, in Germany, and to a lesser extent in Scandinavia, the Netherlands and in Spain, between 1910 and 1925. Important events in expressionist architecture were the Werkbund Exhibition (1914) in Cologne, the completion and theatrical running of the Grosses Schauspielhaus in Berlin, and the Glass Chain letters. Beside a relatively few buildings, expressionist architecture also made a great contribution to architectural theory. Works on paper, such as Bruno Taut's Alpine Architecture and Hermann Finsterlin's Formspiels were able to capture expressions of the architects much more easily and aptly than laborious finished buildings. The more facile and temporal scenography for theatre and films also provided a creative outlet for this difficult movement that challenged the pragmatic and functional in architecture. After the expressionist period however, many of it's architects took to it's near opposite and created functionalist buildings, maybe the more ably having challenged function with expressionism.
Characteristics of Expressionist architecture
- Distortion of form for an emotional effect.
- Subordination of realism to symbolic or stylistic expression of inner experience.
- An underlying effort at achieving the new, original, and visionary.
- Profusion of works on paper, and models, with discovery and representations of concepts more important than pragmatic finished products.
- Often hybrid solutions, irreducible to a single concept.
- Themes of natural romantic phenomena, such as caves, mountains, lightning, crystal and rock formations. As such it is more mineral and elemental than florid and organic which characterized it's close contemporary art nouveau.
- Utilizes creative potential of artisan craftmanship.
- Tendency more towards the gothic than the classical. Expressionist architecture also tends more towards the romanesque and the rococo than the classical.
- Though a movement in Europe, expressionism is as eastern as western. It draws as much from Moorish, Islamic, Egyptian, and Indian art and architecture than from Italian or Greek.
Form
Form played a defining role in setting apart expressionist architecture from its immediate predecessors, art nouveau and jugendstil. While they had an organic freedom with ornament, expressionist architecture strove to free the form of the whole building instead of just it's parts. Examples of this are evident in the paper projects of the movement, as well as in it's built works. Hermann Finsterlin's Formspiels depict the form of buildings turned into organic amorphous massings. Bruno Tauts Alpine Architecture depicts luminescent structures whose entire fabric is moved towards a crystaline form. An example of a built expressionist project that is inventive formally is Erich Mendelsohn's Einstein Tower. This sculpted building shows a relativistic and shifting view of geometry. Devoid of applied ornament, Form and space are shaped in fluid concrete to express concepts of the architect and the building's namesake.
As expressionist architecture utilized curved geometries, a recurring form in the movement is the dome. The interior of the Grosses Schauspielhaus was domed. Hermann Finsterlin's Formspiels are a form of asymetric, anthropomorphic dome. Many of the works of Bruno Taut were also domed, such as the Glass Pavilion and the Worpsweder Käseglocke. Taut's Alpine architecture have the exotic charm of the domed pleasure palaces of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Kahn. Curved architecture requires a curved covering, so expressionist architecture's roofs were often domes.
Peter Behrens, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and others took on a normative form {with some exceptions}, using orthogonal geometries to suggest other architectural concepts.
Materials
A recurring concern of expressionist architects is materials. There was often an intention to unify the materials in a building so as to make it monolithic. Bruno Taut and Paul Scheerbart's doctrine of glass architecture is an example of this. They published texts on this subject and built the Glass Pavilion at the 1914 Werkbund exhibition. Enscribed around the base of the dome were aphoristic sayings about the material, penned by the poet Scheerbart. Another example of expressionist use of monolithic materials was by Erich Mendelsohn at the Einstein Tower. Though not cast in one pour of concrete (due to technical difficulties, brick and stucco were used partially) the effect of the building is an expression of the fluidity of concrete before it is cast. Brick was used in a similar fashion, in a way that expressed the nature of the material. Bruno Taut used brick as a way to show mass and repitition in his Carl Legien Housing Estate.
Theatres and films
The performing arts held a significant place in expressionist architecture. Many architects designed theatres for performances on the stage and film sets for expressionist films were a defining point in the movement. Built examples of theatres are Henry van de Velde's construction of the model theatre for the 1914 Werkbund Exhibition, and Hans Poelzig's grand remodeling of the Grosses Schauspielhaus. Poelzig also designed scenographic sets for Paul Wegener's 1920 film, Der Golem. Like film, and theatre, expressionist architecture created an unusual and exotic environment to surround the visitor. Another film, Metropolis by Fritz Lang, demonstrates a visually progressive 'Futurist' society dealing with the burning issues of 1920's germany in relation to labour and society.
Timeline
- Reactions to Art Nouveau impelled partly by moral yearnings for a sterner and more unadorned style and in part by rationalist ideas requiring practical justification for formal effects.
- Art Nouveau had however, opened up a language of abstraction and pointed to lessons to be learned from nature.
- Formation of the Dresden Die Brücke expressionist art movement.
- The poet Paul Scheerbart independantly offers a Science fiction image of Utopian future.
- The art movement, Neue Kunstlervereinigung is established by Wassily Kandinsky and others in Munich.
- Publication in Berlin of the journals, Der Sturm by Herwarth Walden and Die Aktion by Franz Pfemfert as counterculture mouthpieces against the Deutscher Werkbund.
- Hans Poelzig sets up practice in Breslau. Designs a water tower for Polzen, described by Frampton as a certain Stadtkrone image, and an office building which led to the architectural format of Eric Mendelsohn’s later Berliner Tageblatt in 1921.
- Wassily Kandinsky resigns chairmanship of the Neue Kunstlervereinigung.
- Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer (architect) build the Fagus Factory, Alfeld an der Leine.
- Der Blaue Reiter forms and has first exhibits in Munich, and Berlin
- Hans Poelzig designs a chemical plant in Luban with strongly expressively articulated brick massing.
- Wassily Kandinsky publishes Über das Geistige in der Kunst, (Conserning the spiritual in art)
- Michel de Klerks Eigen Haard is started, completed in 1919.
- Michel de Klerk builds Het Schip in Amsterdam.
- Paul Scheerbart publishes Glasarchitecktur
- Cologne Werkbund exhibition demonstrates idealogical split between:-
- Normative form (Typisierung) - Behrens, Gropius, and,
- Will to form (Kunstwollen) - Taut, Van de Welde
- Death of Paul Scheerbart.
- Bruno Taut publishes Alpine architecture.
- Adolf Behne expands the socio-cultural implications Scheerbarts writings about glass.
- Armistice – Republican revolution in Germany. Social Democrats form Workers and Soldiers Councils. General strikes.
- Free expression of the Amsterdam School elucidated in the Wendingen (Changes) magazine.
- November - Arbeitsrat für Kunst (Worker's Council for the Arts), founded by Bruno Taut and Adolf Behne. They model themselves consciously on the Soviets and attach a leftist programme to their Utopian and Expressionist activities. They demand; 1. A spiritual revolution to accompany the political one. 2. Architects to form ‘Corporations’ bound by ‘mutual aid’.
- November - Novembergruppe formed only to merge with Arbeitsrat für Kunst the following month. It proclaims; 1. Creation of collective art works. 2. Mass housing. 3. The destruction of artistically valuless monuments (This was a common reaction of the Avant Garde against the elitist militarism that was perceived as the cause of World War I.
- December - Arbeitsrat für Kunst declares it's basic aims in Bruno Tauts architeckturprogramm. It calls for a new 'total work of art', to be created with active participation of the people.
- Spring manifesto of Arbeitsrat für Kunst is published. Art for the masses. Alliance of the arts under the wing of architecture. 50 artists, architects and patrons join lead by Bruno Taut, Walter Gropius and Adolf Behne.
- April - Eric Mendelsohn, Hannes Meyer, Bernard Hoetger, Max Taut and Otto Bartning stage exhibition called 'An Exhibition of Unknown Architects'. Walter Gropius writes the introduction, now considered to be a first draft for the Bauhaus programme published later in the month. Called for a ‘Cathedral of the Future’, to unify the creative energy of society as in the middle ages.
- Bauhaus established and begins expressionist phase, to last until 1923.
- Adolf Behne publishes Yes! Voices from the art soviet in Berlin.
- Spartacist revolt ends the overt activities of Arbeitsrat für Kunst. The group starts the first Utopian letter of the Glass Chain by Bruno Taut. They are joined by previously peripheral architects; Hans Luckhardt, Wassili Luckhardt and Hans Scharoun. The letters demand; 1. Return to medieval integration of the building team. 2. Irregular form. 3. Facetted form. 4. Glass monuments.
- Opening of the Grosses Schauspielhaus by Hans Poelzig in Berlin. Hanging pendentive forms create a ‘luminous dissolution of form and space’.
- Bruno Taut launches the magazine Frülicht (Early Light).
- Bruno Taut and Hans Scharoun stress the creative importance of the Freudian unconscious.
- Hans Poelzig is made chairman of the Deutscher Werkbund.
- Design work starts on Piet Kramers De Dageraad. Construction is completed in 1923. Mendelsohn see it as more structural than the work of Hendrikus Wijdeveld.
- February 26, the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari premiered at the Marmorhaus in Berlin.
- Hans Poelzig declares affinity with the Glass Chain. He designs sets for The Golem.
- Solidarity of the Glass Chain is broken. Final letter written by Hermann Finsterlin. Hans Luckhardt recognises the incompatibility of free unconscious form and rationalist prefabrication and moves to Rationalism.
- Taut maintains his Scheerbartian views. He publishes ‘Die Auflösung der Städt in line with Kropotkinian anarchist socialist tendencies. In common with the Soviets, it recommends the break up of cities and a return to the land. He models agrarian communities and temples in the Alps. There would be 3 separate residential communities. 1. The enlightened. 2. Artists. 3. Children. This authoritarianism is noted in Frampton as although socialist in intent, paradoxically containing the seeds of the later fascism.
- Alpine architektur and Die Stadtkrone are published.
- Taut is made city architect of Magdeburg and fails to realise a municipal exhibition hall as the harsh economic realities of the Weimar republic become apparent and prospects of building a ‘glass paradise’ dwindle.
- Walter Gropius designs the Monument to the March Dead in Weimar. It is completed in 1922.
- Frülicht loses its impetus.
- Eric Mendelsohn visits works of the Dutch Wendingen group and tours the Netherlands. He meets the rationalists JJP Oud and W M Dudek. He recognises the conflict of visionary and objective approaches to design.
- Eric Mendelsohn’s Berliner Tageblatt opens. Construction is complete on the Einstein Tower. It combines the sculptural forms of Van de Weldes Werkbund Exhibition theatre with the profile of Taut’s Glashaus and the formal affinity to vernacular dutch architecture of Eibink and Snellerbrand and Hendrikus Wijdeveld. Einstein himself visits and declares it ‘organic’.
- Mendelsohn designs a hat factory in Luckenwalde. It shows influences of the dutch expressionist De Klerk, setting dramatic tall pitched industrial forms against horizontal administrative elements. This approach is echoed in his Leningrad textile mill of 1925 and anticipates the banding in his department stores in Breslau, Stuttgart, Chemnitz and Berlin from 1927 and 1931.
- Hugo Häring and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe submit a competition entry for a Friedrichstrasse office building. It reveals an organic approach to structure and is fully made of glass.
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe publishes a glass skyscraper project in the last issue of Frülicht.
- Bauhaus expressionist phase ends. Standard arguments for the reasons for this are 1. Expressionism was difficult to build. 2. Rampant inflation in Germany changed the climate of opinion to a more sober one. Jencks postulates that the standard arguments are too simplistic and instead argues that 1. Expressionism had become associated with extreme utopianism which in turn had been discredited by violence and bloodshed. Or 2. Architects had become convinced that the new (rationalist) style was equally expressive and more adequately captured the Zeitgeist. There is no large disagreements or public pronouncements to precipitate this change in direction. The only outwardly visible reaction was the forced resignation of the head of the basic Bauhaus course, Johannes Itten, to be replaced with the, then constructivist, László Moholy-Nagy.
- Walter Gropius abandons expressionism and moves to rationalism.
- Bruno and Max Taut begin work on government funded low cost housing projects.
- Berlin secession exhibition. Mies van der Rohe and Hans and Wassili Luckhardt demonstrate a more functional and objective approach.
- Hugo Häring designs a farm complex. It uses expressive pitched roofs contrasted with bulky tectonic elements and rounded corners.
- Hugo Häring designs Prinz Albrecht Garten, residential project. Whilst demonstrating overt expressionism he is preoccupied with deeper inquiries into the inner source of form.
- Foundation of Zehnerring group.
- Hans Poelzig abandons expressionism and returns to crypto-classicism.
- Zehnerring group becomes Der Ring. Hugo Häring is appointed secretary.
- Founding of Der Ring.
- Release of Fritz Langs Metropolis.
- Weissenhof Estate is built in Stuttgart. Expressionist architects, Taut, Poelzig, Scharoun, build in international style.
- Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) convenes in Switzerland. Hugo Häring fails to move consensus away from Le Corbusiers call for rationalism towards an organic approach. Finally the Scheerbartian vision is eclipsed as the non-normative ‘place’ orientated approach is cast aside.
1940's
- The Berlin Philharmonic concert hall is destroyed in 1944 during WWII.
1950's
- Le Corbusier constructs Notre Dame du Haut signaling his postmodern return to an architectural expressionism of form. He also constructs the Unité d'Habitation, which emphasizes the architectural expression of materials. The brutalist use of beton-brut or reinforced concrete, recalls the expressionist use of glass, brick, and steel.
1960’s
- Expressionism reborn without the political context as Fantastic architecture.
- Rebuilding of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1963 by Hans Scharoun.
Notable Expressionist architects
- Adolf Behne
- Hermann Finsterlin
- Walter Gropius - early period
- Hugo Häring
- Erich Mendelsohn
- Hans Poelzig
- Hans Scharoun
- Rudolf Steiner
- Bruno Taut
Bibliography
- Frampton, Kenneth (2004). Modern architecture - a critical history. Third edition. World of Art. ISBN 0500202575
- Jencks, Charles (1986). Modern Movements in Architecture. Second Edition. Penguin. ISBN 01400099638
- Pehnt, Wolfgang (1973). Expressionist Architecture. Thames and Hudson.
- Sharp, Dennis (1966). Modern Architecture and Expressionism. George Braziller: New York.
- Whyte, Iain Boyd ed. (1985). Crystal Chain Letters: Architectural Fantasies by Bruno Taut and His Circle. The MIT Press.
- http://www.archpedia.com/Styles-Expressionist.html
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Original German Page
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionismus_%28Architektur%29
Expressionist architecture is an almost exclusively German phenomenon which started at the end of World War I and lasted until the end of the 1920's. Adolf Behne had discribed Bruno Tauts architecture as being Expressionist in the magazine Pan. Many of the architects had previously been exponents of Art Nouveau and were members of the Deutscher Werkbund. Most later went on to become Modernists.
Characteristics
Unlike Modernist architecture, expressionist architecture used rounded and serrated forms.
Brick was typical used for expressionist buildings.
Concrete was also used.
Around 1920 the new building materials were being experimented with in a number of styles.
Expressionism came to be seen as an opportunity to move form onwards ??????? bad translation
At the Einstein Tower in Potsdam, it was planned that concrete should be used.
It was actually consructed in brick and then plastered over - probably because construction of the formwork would have been too great an problem.
The movement is remarkable for the synthesis of the arts in nearly all buildings and Interior design.
Frequently sculpture was included in Relief
Also, silent films offered an outlet for architectural fantasies. Hans Poelzig designed the sets for the 1920 film "Golem".
Many expressionist designs remained unbuilt utopias.
Architects and Buidlings
For most architects Expressionism was a relatively short phase in their careers. This applies, for example to Hans Poelzig who later turned to Modernist architecture. The Grosses Schauspielhaus in Berlin was the first building of the style.
The drip-like interior became particularly famous.
1920-1921 Erich Mendelsohn builds, probably the most famous expressionist building: Einstein tower in Potsdam-Babelsberg.
Even Bauhaus projects such as Haus Sommerfeld in Berlin by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer were very expressionistically styled in the 1920s.The house was planned as an expressionistic synthesis of the arts. Gropius and Meyer worked very closely with the wood carver Jost Schmidt and the stained glass craftsman Josef Albers.
The Chilehaus in Hamburg by Fritz Höger or 1922-1924 influenced the Anzeiger-Hochhaus in Hannover in 1927-1928.
The anthropologist centre building Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland built between 1924-1928 for Rudolf Steiner, exhibits very strong enfluences of expressionism.
Bernhard Hoetger worked as a scuptor in Worpswede on the Böttcherstraße until 1931.
Outside of Germany,the Amsterdam School with the work of Michel de Klerk was of significance.
After World War I and the expressionist architect group Glass Chain of Bruno Taut, Hans Scharoun established The Ring. His later buildings, such as the famous Philharmonie in Berlin (1956-1963), with organic architecture demonstrates Scharouns expressionistist past.
Further expressionistic architecture or buildings with expressionistic resemblances:
Volkshaus Rotthausen in Gelsenkirchen (Alfred Fischer, 1920-1921); Pallottinerkirche St. Johannes der Täufer (Freising), 1928-1930 by Jan Hubert Pinand; Station conversion Stuttgart, Bolzstraße; Regional finance office, Stuttgart, Lautenschlagerstraße; Town hall in Oberhausen (Completed 1930); Heilig-Kreuz-Church in Gelsenkirchen-Ückendorf; "Bastei" in Cologne on the bank of the Rhein.
See also
Bibliography
Wolfgang Pehnt: Die Architektur des Expressionismus. Hatje Cantz Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-7757-0668-2