#ernst neufert

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Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (1969-73) of the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany, by Ernst Neufert. Photo by Renate Gruber.

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Disturbing Neufert

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Forschungsinstitut des Zementverbandes (1955-56) in Düsseldorf, Germany, by Ernst & Peter Neufert

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Extension (1925-26) of the AMCO Factory in Kirchbrak, Germany, by Walter Gropius & Ernst Neufert

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Calling him the „pope“ of rationalization in architecture is no exaggeration: with his „Bauentwurfslehre/Architects’ Data“, commonly referred to as „The Neufert“, Ernst Neufert (1900-86) wrote the omnipresent reference book for the spatial requirements in building design and site planning. First published in 1936 it has up to now seen 42(!) editions and has been translated into 18 languages. But despite the manual’s global success its author has remained somewhat opaque, just like the context in which it first appeared: published during the Third Reich Neufert, formerly banned by the Nazis, with the unexpectedly bestselling book gained the attention of Albert Speer who consecutively commissioned Neufert to design standardized and rationalized dwellings. A critical evaluation and discussion of his career and architecture had been a long time in the coming after Werner Durth in the mid-1980s uncovered Neufert’s entanglement in the higher echelons of the Nazi regime, a major gap in large parts closed by the present anthology: „Ernst Neufert - Normierte Baukultur im 20. Jahrhundert“, edited by Walter Prigge and published in 1999 by Campus Verlag, that offers profound and multifocal perspectives on the architect’s built work, his biography and his theoretical considerations. It draws a line from his Bauhaus years and his employment in Walter Gropius’ office to the Third Reich and postwar Germany, a particularly successful part of his career during which he realized a number of large-scale industrial projects. In the latter projects Neufert was able to run through standardization and rationalization from A to Z. But for good reasons the contributing authors also don’t omit the valid criticism of Neufert laying the ground for monotonous prefab architecture that specifically characterized the housing construction in the former GDR and numerous low-cost housing projects in Germany.

The present volume is a rich source for different takes and contemplations on the undoubtedly influential Work of Ernst Neufert that beyond theoretical and historical analyses also addresses the numerous buildings he designed during his long career, from his own houses to industrial facilities.

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Motorway Restaurant (1951) in Pfungstadt, Germany, by Ernst Neufert

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Distribution Center of the Company “Quelle” (1954-67) in Nürnberg, Germany, by Ernst Neufert

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Factory (1951) of Schott AG in Mainz, Germany, by Ernst Neufert