Expressionist architecture/Structure redesign sandbox

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Expressionist architecture describes a type of architecture which uses the form of a building as a means of expressing inner sensitivities and feelings. This tendency can be coupled with the notion that the form can represent the physical manifestation of a transpersonal or mystic spirit.[1]

The term "Expressionist architecture" initially described the activities of the German, Dutch, Austrian, Czech and Danish avant garde from 1910 until ca. 1924 which occurred concurrently and interdependantly with the expressionist movement in the visual and performing arts. Subsequent redefinitions extended the term backwards to 1905 and also widened it to encompass the rest of Europe. Today the meaning has broadened even further to refer to architecture of any date or location that exhibits some of the qualities of the original movement such as; utopianism, distortion, fragmentation, or the communication of violent or overstressed emotion.[2]

The style was characterised by an early-modernist adoption of novel materials, formal innovation, and very unusual massing, sometimes inspired by natural biomorphic forms, sometimes by the new technical possibilities offered by the mass production of brick, steel and especially glass. Many expressionist architects fought in World War I and their experiences, combined with the political turmoil and social upheaval that followed the German Revolution of 1919, resulted in a utopian outlook and a romantic socialist agenda.[3] Economic conditions severly limited the number of built commissions between 1914 and the mid 1920s,[4] resulting in many of the most important expressionist works remaining as projects on paper, such as Bruno Taut's Alpine Architecture and Hermann Finsterlin's Formspiels. Ephemeral exhibition buildings were numerous and highly significant during this period. Scenography for theatre and films provided another outlet for the expressionist imagination,[5] and provided supplemental incomes for designers attempting to challenge conventions in a harsh economic climate.

Important events in expressionist architecture include; the Werkbund Exhibition (1914) in Cologne, the completion and theatrical running of the Grosses Schauspielhaus, Berlin in 1919, the Glass Chain letters, and the activities of the Amsterdam School. The major permanent extant landmark of Expressionism is Erich Mendelsohn's Einstein Tower in Potsdam. By 1925 most of the leading architects of Expressionism such as; Bruno Taut, Eric Mendelsohn, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and Hans Poelzig, along with other Expressionists in the visual arts, had turned toward the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement, a more practical and matter-of-fact approach which rejected the emotional agitation of expressionism. A few, notably Hans Scharoun, continued to work in an expressionist idiom.[6]

In 1933, after the Nazi seizure of power in Germany, expressionist art was outlawed as Degenerate art.[7] Until the 1970s scholars[8] commonly played down the influence of the expressionists on the later International style, but this has been re-evaluated in recent years.

Contents
Chilehaus by Fritz Höger in 1923
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Chilehaus by Fritz Höger in 1923
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Friedrichstraße Skyscraper Project, Berlin-Mitte, 1921
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Friedrichstraße Skyscraper Project, Berlin-Mitte, 1921


[edit] Definition

  • define the term
  • outline the movements

[edit] European Expressionist movements

[edit] Germanic Expressionism

[edit] Context

  • Preceding movements - Vienna succession and Jugendstil
  • Politcal history
  • Theories of perception
  • Expressionist art
  • Die Brucke, Der Ring, Der Sturm, Walden etc.
  • Werkbund

[edit] Expressionist movement

  • Characteristics
    • Abstraction
    • Form
    • Materials
      • The importance of glass and the significance of the crystal
  • Philosophy
  • Ideas
  • Protagonists
  • Built works
  • Projects

[edit] First world war and Revolution

  • First world war
  • Arbeitsrat fur kunst, Novembergruppe
  • Bauhaus - Johannes Itten, Gropius manifesto
  • Politics

[edit] Theatre and Film

  • Metropolis
  • Set design

[edit] Decline of the movement

  • Bauhaus - the move away from expressionism towards constructivism.
  • Nazi repression

[edit] The Amsterdam School

[edit] Influences

  • Mendelsohns visit

[edit] Characteristics

  • Materials
  • Form

[edit] Other expressionists

[edit] Danish

[edit] Czech

  • Josef Chochol - 1913 Neklan street apartments prague.
  • Pavel Janak [1]- 1913 Fara House - Pelhrimov
  • Novotny - crystal design for royal palace in sofia
  • Moved towards cubism

[edit] Early examples

  • Gaudi

[edit] Immediate Legacy

[edit] History of scholastic interpretation

  • Discuss how expressionism was seen as a sideshow by Gideon and Pevsner attempting to force a narrative thread to modernism.
  • Critical reappraisal in the 1970's onwatds.
  • Jencks 'Intuitive' tradition.[9]

[edit] Post war expressionism

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Klein, Rudolph (2002) Lecture notes for Changing architectural languages of the 20th century
  2. ^ Stallybrass and Bullock, p.301-392 - entry by John Willett
  3. ^ Jencks, p.59
  4. ^ Sharp, p.68
  5. ^ Pehnt, p.163
  6. ^ Pehnt, p.203
  7. ^ Pehnt, p.203
  8. ^ Most notably Nikolaus Pevsner
  9. ^ Jencks, p.59

[edit] References

  • Banham, Reyner (1972). Theory and Design in the First Machine Age. Third edition. Praeger Publishers Inc. ISBN 0-85139-632-1
  • Benson, Timothy. O. (et.al), Dimenberg, Edward (17-09-2001). Expressionist Utopias: Paradise, Metropolis, Architectural Fantasy (Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism). University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23003-5.
  • Frampton, Kenneth (2004). Modern architecture - a critical history. Third edition. World of Art. ISBN 0-500-20257-5
  • Jencks, Charles (1986). Modern Movements in Architecture. Second Edition. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-009963-8
  • Pehnt, Wolfgang (1973). Expressionist Architecture. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-34058-7
  • Sharp, Dennis (1966). Modern Architecture and Expressionism. George Braziller: New York. OCLC 180572
  • Oliver Stallybrass, and Alan Bullock (et al) [1988]. The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought (Paperback) (in English), Fontana press, 918 pages. ISBN 0-00-686129-6.
  • Whyte, Iain Boyd ed. (1985). Crystal Chain Letters: Architectural Fantasies by Bruno Taut and His Circle. The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-23121-2

[edit] External links

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Modernism
20th century - Modernity - Existentialism
Modernism (music): 20th century classical music - Atonality - Serialism - Jazz
Modernist literature - Modernist poetry
Modern art - Symbolism (arts) - Impressionism - Expressionism - Cubism - Surrealism - Dadaism - Futurism (art) - Fauvism - Pop Art - Minimalism
Modern dance - Expressionist dance
Modern architecture - Brutalism - De Stijl - Functionalism - Futurism - International Style - Organicism - Visionary architecture
...Preceded by Romanticism Followed by Post-modernism...
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