Discover Top Posts Tagged with #expressionist architecture

pre-war modern apartment buildings // charleroi

maison mazurelle

architect: lucien mazurelle

completion 1936

2. maison grenier

architect: marcel depelsenenaire

completion: 1935

In the period following the first world war, charleroi saw the construction of many prestigious buildings as well as a large number of smaller residential buildings and houses with integrated commercial premises in the new sobriety. this was partly because charleroi was a prosperous industrial city at the time, enjoying a certain degree of affluence. the buildings were constructed in a wide variety of styles, some with expressionist elements and others more in the de stijl. belgian architects and commissioned artists were characterised by a high degree of experimentation in their designs. unfortunately, i was only able to find detailed information on the first two buildings.

in der zeit nach dem ersten weltkrieg wurden in charleroi neben vielen repräsentativen bauten auch jede menge kleinere wohn- oder häuser mit integrierten gewerbe im stile des neuen bauens errichtet. das lag auch daran das charleroi damals eine prosperierende industriestadt war, die über einigen wohlstand verfügte. die gebäude wurden in den verschiedensten stilarten errichtet, sei es mit expressionistischen elementen oder mehr in richtung de stijl. wobei die belgischen architekt*innen und beauftragten künstleri*nnen sich durch eine hohe experimentierfreude bei der gestaltung auszeichnen. leider konnte ich nur für die beiden ersten gebäude genauere informationen ermitteln.

The Einstein Tower, Potsdam, Germany,

The Einstein Tower, is one of the best-known examples of German expressionist architecture. Designed as an amorphic structure of reinforced concrete, Mendelsohn wanted the tower to represent as well as facilitate the study of Einstein’s radical theory of relativity – a groundbreaking theorem of motion, light and space.

Astrophysicist Erin Finlay Freundlich commissioned Mendelsohn (along with a young Richard Neutra on his team) to design the Einstein Tower as a research facility for the theory of relativity. Between 1917-1920 Mendelsohn made numerous sketches of the facility, attempting to create a dynamic structure which would give form to Einstein’s groundbreaking theories. The resulting plan revealed a centralized observatory tower, banded by rings of windows, raised on top of a wavelike platform that would house the laboratories.

Influenced by the work of expressionist artists of the time, such as the painter Wassily Kandinsky and designer Hermann Obrist, Mr Mendelsohn began to search for new methods of construction that would allow expressional freedom, which is why he eventually settled upon easily sculpted reinforced concrete as his material.

Building commenced in 1921. Unfortunately, however, the sculpted concrete structure proved difficult to execute with the technological capabilities of the time. The failure to complete the building according to his original plan prevented him from designing such ambitious projects in the future, and the Einstein Tower remains his best known building.

The research center opened in 1924 and held the most important solar observatory facilities until World War II, when it was severely damaged. In 1999 the building was reopened, in honor of its 75th anniversary, following two years of renovation; today it houses a working solar observatory as well as a visitors’ center.

Erich Mendelsohn Architect

Hamburg. Germany

After the end of the First World War and in view of the defeat of Germany as well as the end of the German monarchy, artists and architects from different spectrums worked for and towards a new society. Among expressionist artists and architects this new society oftentimes should be founded on a diffuse melange of Gothic reminiscences, Germanic mythology and odd fantasies about an advanced civilization based in Atlantis that even before the Greek and Roman Antiquity represented a „Nordic primitive culture“. Among the artists and architects who shared at least parts of this invented histories were Bernhard Hoetger, Fritz Höger, Fidus or Johann Michael Bossard whose buildings and projects represent important yet ambivalent contributions to expressionist architecture in Germany.

Suitably, in 2003 the Paula-Modersohn-Becker-Haus in Bremen’s famous Böttcherstrasse presented the exhibition „Bau einer neuen Welt. Architektonische Visionen des Expressionismus“ that was accompanied by the present catalogue. The catalogue contains a total of 18 essays that address a multitude of artists, topics and ideologies that inevitably belong to the discourse surrounding expressionist art and architecture: Klaus von See e.g. discusses the Böttcherstrasse in Bremen and the mediocre Germano-archaic ideas Ludwig Roselius, the mastermind behind it, and his friend/sculptor/architect Bernhard Hoetger shared. Annemarie Jaeggi on the other hand takes on the early Bauhaus and the expressionist architecture it created. A particularly interesting essay stems from Gerda Breuer who addresses the relationship between expressionist ideologies and politics: Breuer rightly points out that the ideas of a new society and a new humankind hark back to the 19th century and often include ra*ist convictions that were shockingly common at the turn of the 20th century. At the same time the utopian ideas and ideals never turned into practical societal change and it was only in Amsterdam that expressionist architecture actually became the dominant style for a workers’ housing projects.

The present catalogue gathers a broad range of essays and topics that provide perfect starting points for further research into expressionist architecture in Germany and the dubious ideology it was often infused with.

#expressionist architecture #architecture book #architectural history #art history #book #german architecture