Modernism in Germany Fall 2024 PDF

laura S1: Why History? S2-S3: America Rediscovered: The Chicago School, the Prairie Houses, the Skyscrapers S4-S5: The Search for Modern Form: Art Nouveau, Modernism, Sezession S6: New Production, New Aesthetic: The Deutscher Werkbund S7: Modernism in Germany: From Paper Architecture to Exhibiti...

laura S1: Why History? S2-S3: America Rediscovered: The Chicago School, the Prairie Houses, the Skyscrapers S4-S5: The Search for Modern Form: Art Nouveau, Modernism, Sezession S6: New Production, New Aesthetic: The Deutscher Werkbund S7: Modernism in Germany: From Paper Architecture to Exhibition Commissions S8-9: Avant-garde in Art and Architecture: Expressionism, Futurism, De Stilj, and Russia S10-11: Modernism in France: From the Machine Aesthetic to the Engagement with Landscape S12: Architectural Education and Social Reform: Beaux-Arts, Bauhaus, Vkhutemas S13: Internationalization through Discourses and Networks: CIAM, Open-air and Museum Exhibitions S14: Modern Languages across the World: Architecture beyond Central-Europe VAP DUE S1: Why History? Beatriz Colomina, “Outrage: Blindness to Women turns out to be blindness to architecture itself” (2018) | León Siminiani,“Arquitectura emocional 1959” (30 min., 2022) S2-S3: America Rediscovered: The Chicago School, the Prairie Houses, the Skyscrapers Laura Martínez de Guereñu, “Plastic Fantastic: El B Auditorium” (2011) | READING RESPONSE 1 + prep VISUAL ANALYSIS PAPER S4-S5: The Search for Modern Form: Art Nouveau, Modernism, Sezession VAP PROPOSAL DUE Adolf Loos,“Architecture” (1910) | READING RESPONSE 2 S6: New Production, New Aesthetic: The Deutscher Werkbund Herman Muthesius/ Henry van de Velde, “Aims of the Werkbund” (1911)/ “Werkbund Theses and Antitheses” (1914) S7: Modernism in Germany: From Paper Architecture to Exhibition Commissions Magdalena Droste, “The Creative Pair: Lilly Reich and the Collaboration with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe” (2017) S8-9: Avant-garde in Art and Architecture: Expressionism, Futurism, De Stilj, and Russia Alice T. Friedman with Maristela Casciato, “Family Matters: The Schröder House, by Gerrit Rietveld and Truus Schröder” (1997) | READING RESPONSE 3 VAP OUTLINE DUE S10-11: Modernism in France: From the Machine Aesthetic to the Engagement with Landscape Jean-Louis Cohen, “Pessac | Moscow | Poissy | Roquebrune-Cap Martin” (2013) | READING RESPONSE 4 + prep VISUAL ANALYSIS PAPER S12: Architectural Education and Social Reform: Beaux-Arts, Bauhaus, Vkhutemas W. Gropius, “Principles of Bauhaus Production” (1923) / H. Meyer, “Building” (1928) / Mies “Building” (1923), “Build Beautifully and Practically! Stop This Cold Functionality” (1930) S13: Internationalization through Discourses and Networks: CIAM, Open-air and Museum Exhibitions Philip Johnson and Henry Russell Hitchcock Jr.,“A Modern Architecture: International Exhibition” (1932) S14: Modern Languages across the World: Architecture beyond Central-Europe VAP DUE Magdalena Droste, “The Creative Pair: Lilly Reich and the Collaboration with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,” in Frau Architekt. Over 100 Years of Women in Architecture, Wasmuth, Tübingen, 2017, pp. 105-111. S1: Why History? Beatriz Colomina, “Outrage: Blindness to Women turns out to be blindness to architecture itself” (2018) | León Siminiani,“Arquitectura emocional 1959” (30 min., 2022) S2-S3: America Rediscovered: The Chicago School, the Prairie Houses, the Skyscrapers Laura Martínez de Guereñu, “Plastic Fantastic: El B Auditorium” (2011) | READING RESPONSE 1 + prep VISUAL ANALYSIS PAPER S4-S5: The Search for Modern Form: Art Nouveau, Modernism, Sezession VAP PROPOSAL DUE Adolf Loos,“Architecture” (1910) | READING RESPONSE 2 S6: New Production, New Aesthetic: The Deutscher Werkbund Herman Muthesius/ Henry van de Velde, “Aims of the Werkbund” (1911)/ “Werkbund Theses and Antitheses” (1914) S7: Modernism in Germany: From Paper Architecture to Exhibition Commissions Magdalena Droste, “The Creative Pair: Lilly Reich and the Collaboration with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe” (2017) S8-9: Avant-garde in Art and Architecture: Expressionism, Futurism, De Stilj, and Russia Alice T. Friedman with Maristela Casciato, “Family Matters: The Schröder House, by Gerrit Rietveld and Truus Schröder” (1997) | READING RESPONSE 3 VAP OUTLINE DUE S10-11: Modernism in France: From the Machine Aesthetic to the Engagement with Landscape Jean-Louis Cohen, “Pessac | Moscow | Poissy | Roquebrune-Cap Martin” (2013) | READING RESPONSE 4 + prep VISUAL ANALYSIS PAPER S12: Architectural Education and Social Reform: Beaux-Arts, Bauhaus, Vkhutemas W. Gropius, “Principles of Bauhaus Production” (1923) / H. Meyer, “Building” (1928) / Mies “Building” (1923), “Build Beautifully and Practically! Stop This Cold Functionality” (1930) S13: Internationalization through Discourses and Networks: CIAM, Open-air and Museum Exhibitions Philip Johnson and Henry Russell Hitchcock Jr.,“A Modern Architecture: International Exhibition” (1932) S14: Modern Languages across the World: Architecture beyond Central-Europe VAP DUE Battle fronts, 1914-1918 Lyonel Feininger, Denstedt, Oil in canvas, 1917. (Rendeing of the streets and buidings of a German village)  Lyonel Feininger, The Town at the End of the World, 1910, MoMA, New York. Lyonel Feininger, Gelmeroda VIII, 1921, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Karl Liebknecht at Tiergarten, Berlin, 1918 Spartacus Revolt, soldiers of the Republican movement who joined the Spartacists being led away by government troops after th e uprising was squashed, Berlin, Germany, 1919 The social democratic party abandoned any attempt to transform modes of production Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1885-1969), Denkmal für Rosa Luxemburg und Karl Liebknecht (Liebknecht- Luxembourg Monument) (Monument to the November Revolution), 1926  The model of the Bauhütte (the medieval guild) proved seductive. The model of industrialization had brought them to the horrors of the War. The were no longer attracted by it. The new political and economic strategies found a cultural and architectural response in Expressionism. George Scholz, Industrialized Peasants, 1920, Oil on wood with collage and photomontage 3  The movement known as “Neue Sachlichkeit” (New Objectivity, New Fact-like-ness), indicated a New Realism. The term was first used in 1923 in the context of painting (not architecture) by museum director Gustav Hartlaub, who defined it as “realism with a socialist flavour.” *“Sache” (thing or fact) refers not to an abstract universal but to an object that is socially constructed and has become “second nature.” George Grosz, Pillars of Society, 1926. Oil on canvas, Nationalgalerie, Berlin. 4 Albert Renger-Patzsch, Urban Houses From Die Welt Ist Schon (The World is Beautiful), 1928 August Sander, Bricklayer's Mate, Cologne, 1929 5  In architecture, the change was registered by Adolf Behne. Adolf Behne explained in “Kunst, Handwerk, Technik” (Art, Craft, and Technology) (1922), that the division of labour inaugurated by the machine was an improvement on the old “organic” relation between the individual craftsman and his products, since it brought into play a higher awareness. Bruno Taut (1880-1930) had founded with Walter Gropius (1883-1969) and Adolf Behne (1885-1948) the Arbeitsrat fur Kunst (AFK) (Working Council for Art). This was a trade union of artists created during the revolution that swept Germany in 1918 that modeled on the Proletarian Council of Intellectual Workers. Taut envisaged a group of architects within the AFK who would take control of every aspect of the visual environment. 18  Bruno Taut, Alpine Architektur. In an open letter of November 1918 Hagen, Germany: Folkwang Verlag Publishing, 1919, plate 7. addressed to “the Socialist Government” Bruno Taut put forward the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk: “Art and life must form a unity. Art should no longer be the delight of the few, but the good fortune of the life of the masses. The aim is the fusion of the arts under the wing of a great architecture…From now on, the artist alone will be the modeler of the sensibilities of the Volk, responsible for the visible fabric of the new state. He must determine the form-giving process from the statue right down to the coin and the postage stamp.” The Arbeitsrat fur Kunst (AFK) (Working Council for Art) were based in Berlin from 1918 to 1921. The goals of the AFK were: 1. The acknowledgement of all task of building as public and not private task. 2. The abolition of all official privilege. 3. The establishment of community centers as places of exchange, art, and ideas. 4. The dissolution of the Academy of Arts. 5. The release of architectural, plastic, painting, and handicraft commissions from national patronage. 6. The promotion of museums as educational places. 7. The removal of artistically worthless moments. 8. The formation of a state body to oversee and promote education in the arts.  Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, House Kroller-Muller, 1919 ”The crystalline expression of man’s noblest thoughts, his ardor, his humanity, his faith, his Same time of the creation of the Bauhaus religion…There are no architects today, we are all of us merely preparing the way for him who will once again deserve the name of the architect, for that means, lord or art, who will build gardens out of deserts and pile up wonders to the sky.” Walter Gropius “One day there will be a Weltanschauung [world-view], and then there will also be its sign, its crystal – architecture.” Bruno Taut The Exhibition for Unknown Architects (mounted in April 1919) was by far Gropius’s most important event during his leadership of the AFK. Entry was not restricted to only architects! Participants were encouraged to submit visionary schemes unrestricted by programmatic or aesthetic constraints. It was unsuccessful in its popularizing aims, but it turned out to be an event of great significance in the history of modern architecture. 19 Agustín Ferrer Casas, MIES, Grafito editorial, 2019. [Graphic Novel] https://www.grafitoeditorial.com/comic/mies/ Bruno Taut, (Snow, Ice, Glass) from Alpine Architecture, 1919 Bruno Taut’s Alpine Architekture provided the most systematic expression of the new architecture to which the Arbeitsrat für Kunst aspired 11  Bruno Taut, Die gläserne Kette Bruno Taut with Wenzel Hablik Hans and Wassili Luckhardt Bruno Taut founded in 1919 the Gläserne Kette (Glass Chain) Hans Scharoun to exchange architectural ideas and fantasies. Many of the drawings originated in the Glass Chain, were later published by Taut in his magazine Frühlicht (Dawn), from 1920 to 1922. Bruno Taut, Die Auflösung der Städte oder die Erde eine gute Wohnung (The Dissolution of Cities or the Earth as a Good Dwelling), 1920 He imagined a great migration from the cities to the redemptive countryside EXPRESSIONISM A kind of reaction to the machine, giving the voice to the architect Peter Behrens, I.G. Farben, Verwaltungsgebaude (I.G. Farben, Office Building) interior, entrance hall, skylights from below,1920 Poelzig responded to Taut’s call for transparency with solid masses. He introduced a new world of imposing and Hans Poelzig (1869-1936), mysterious forms: Grosses Schauspielhaus, Berlin, 1919 “True understanding of architecture is so unspeakably important because it determines the appearance of our homeland, which has been so disfigured by the half-hearted architecture of recent decades…But it is not possible to reinstate architecture as a major art overnight. This will be possible only when a coherent major revolution of souls has taken place, when the conviction that we must create things for eternity has gained general recognition.” * commissioned by the impresario and director Max Reinhardt 14  Other sets: Robert Wiene, Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920) Friedrich Murnau, Nosferatu (1922) The Golem: How He Came into the World (Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam), 1919-1920 Hans Poelzig/ Paul Wegener, Synagogue Set for movie 'Der Golem’, 1919  GESAMTKUNSTWERK Walter Gropius/ Adolf Meyer, Sommerfeld House, Berlin-Steglitz, 1920-21 Eric Mendelsohn (with Richard Neutra), Berliner Tageblatt Building, 1921-3 A superstructure built on top of the building transforming the corner into a kind of ship’s prow Eric Mendelsohn, Hat Factory, Luckenwalde, Brandenburg, Germany, 1921 Erich Mendelsohn, Einstein Tower, Potsdam, 1924 It is an unmistakable reference to the series of Bismarcktürme (Bismarck Towers) built in many cities throughout Germany before 1914 But now they were not honoring the Councellor, Otto von Bismarck, but modern technology 38 FUNCTIONALISTS VERSUS RATIONALISTS Behne equated the functionalists with the ex-Expressionist architects, who under the guise of being true to the laws of nature, created singular buildings that were unable to become parts of a greater whole: “As a functionalist looks for the greatest possible adaptation to the most specialized purpose, the rationalists look for the most appropriate solution for many cases”. In this sense, the functionalists were seen as individualists, while the rationalists accept a responsibility to society. The FUNCTIONALIST, created unique, non-repeatable buildings whose forms were shaped responding to their functions. The RATIONALISTS looked for typical and repeatable forms that were able to fulfill generalized needs. Adolf Behne, Der Moderne Zweckbau (The Modern Functional Building, by Adolf Behne, written in 1923, but not published until 1926), which was one of the first attempts to define the Neue Sachlichkeit movement. 9 Erich Mendelsohn, Einstein Tower, Potsdam, 1924 An expressionist who was indifferent to function It is an unmistakable reference to the series of Bismarcktürme (Bismarck Towers) built in many cities throughout Germany before 1914 38  The project, due to the vernacular forms it adopted, acquired a level of generality. Hugo Häring, Farm at Garkau, 1924 39 Hugo Häring, Friedrichstrasse Office Building Competition, Hochhaus Banhoff, 1922  He was a master of mixing expressionism with functionalism Hans Scharoun, Home and Workplace Exhibition, Hostel Building, Wroclaw, Lower Silesia, Poland, 1929. 40 Eric Mendelsohn, Amerika. Bilderbuch eines Architekten (America, an Architect’s Picture Book) 1926. Eric Mendelsohn, Schocken Department Store, Stuttgart, 1926-28 After his return, he transformed his own architecture Eric Mendelsohn, Theater at Lehniner Platz, WOGA Leisure Complex, Kufürstendamn, Berlin, c1930. (General view renovation 1978-81 reopened 1981) MIES VAN DER ROHE AND THE SPIRITUALIZATION OF TECHNIQUE Mies at the Tugendhat House, Brno, 1930 A man of few but weighty words The reputation of Mies (1886-1969) in the sphere of aesthetics was parallel to the reputation of Gropius (1883-1969) in the sphere of organization. An architect with the ability to reduce every problem to a kind of essential simplicity 41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fQnyVv-e5Y Towers of Plaza España, Barcelona International Exposition, 1929 [S2: America Rediscovered: The Chicago School, the Prairie Houses, the Skyscrapers] Lilly Reich in Barcelona: The Materialization of a Neglected Authorship (forthcoming, 2025) Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Neue Nationalgalerie, 1968 Photo: Reinhard Friedrich David Chipperfield. Neue Nationalgalerie, 2022 Photo: Simon Menges  Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Haus Lemke, 1933 https://www.miesvanderrohehaus.de Mies goes Future https://www.miesvanderrohehaus.de/en/archive/mies-goes- future-film-and-exhibition-project/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG45UFOY5GY 1:47 min Mies, Riehl House, Neubabelsberg, Potsdam, Germany, 1907 Neoclassical objectification 44 Neoplasticist fragmentation Works during the 1920s 42  Mies’s architectural formation was remarkably similar to Le Corbusier’s. But their response to the conditions of modernity could hardly have been more different!. Both had been trained in craft schools and had climbed into the professional and social higher sphere of architecture.. Both had changed their names.. Both worked their way through a formative period of neoclassicism (designing furniture and houses), based on the examples of 2 masters: Bruno Paul and Peter Behnrens.. Both producted their modernist work as a continuation of their neoclassical work. Mies and Le Corbusier at the Weissenhof Siedlung, 1926 43 Mies, Villa Werner, Zehlendorf, Berlin West, Germany, 1913 Mies was over 40 when he completed this house Mies and Lilly Reich, Wolf House in Guben, 1925-7 45 Cover of the journal G: Material zur Elementaren Gestaltung (G: From Material to Form) Mies published his earliest Constructivist projects, together with brief polemical articles, in which he took a strongly anti-formalist Mies’s glass skyscraper published in G. position: “We know no forms, only building problems. Form is not the goal but the result of our work.” Hans Richter, Rhythm (abstract film), 1922 46 Mies, Concrete Office Building, 1922. As published in journal G. The building was a first expression of his theoretical positions: “Architecture is the spatially apprehended will of the epoch.” Brick Country House, 1924. 48 Mies, Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Project for an office building, 1921 A response to the Flatiron in NYC. Daniel H. Burnham, Flatiron Building, N.Y., during construction, 1902. 47 Mies, Glass skyscraper, 1922 47  Mies, Concrete Country House, 1923. As published in journal G. Brick Country House, 1924. 48  Mies, Brick Country House, 1924. As published in journal G. The 5 unbuilt projects of the Brick Country House, 1924. beginning of the 1920s 48 Mies, Lange and Esters houses in Krefeld, 1927 49 Mies and Lillly Reich, Tugendhat House in Brno, 1930 50 Tugendhat House in Brno, 1930 51 2020 Birkhäuser Verlag GmbH, Basel  “In Mr. Tugendhat’s view, living in the house had little effect on his identity and did not influence his dwelling preferences later on: ’It was quite unimportant for me where I lived. I’m a philosopher,’ he stated. He described to us his different living situations over the years: ‘When I went to Stanford, I first lived in a dorm for two years. I think this shows the little significance the living situation had for me, that I took an extremely small room and I was very happy to find a room again where I didn’t have a roommate.’ From student dormitories to a “normal apartment” in Tübingen and “quite a nice place in Berlin,” which “was more or less a coincidence,” he said that his homes have mattered little to him over his 2021 Birkhäuser Verlag GmbH, Basel lifetime. While Mr. Tugendhat agreed that Mies likely thought that architecture could improve inhabitants’ lives, he does not believe so himself. ‘If I would have become an adult in that house, I don’t think I would have stayed, because of what I call … what was my word? Embarrassment….I find it strange that my parents built a house like this.’” Mies, Afrikanischestrasse Municipal Housing, Berlin-Wedding, 1925-27 Mies, Weissenhof Siedlung, Stuttgardt, 1927 33 The three sites of “The Dwelling” Exhibitiion in Stuttgart. Lilly Reich, Exhibition The Dwelling, Stuttgart, 1927 Mies and Lilly Reich, The Dwelling, Weissenhofsiedlung Werkbund Exposition, Stuttgart, Germany (Plan for the Glass Industry Exhibit), 1927 JJJ.J.P. Oud, Block of apartments built at the Weissenhof Siedlung. Mies, apartment block at the Weissenhof Siedlung. 34 Mies, Weissenhof Siedlung Exhibition, Stuttgart, 1927  List of 24 se ctions distributed in 8 p alaces Plan of th e G erman sections at the 1929 Ba rce lona In ter national Exhibition Pho tog raphs by Ber liner Bild-Ber icht Modern Architecture: International Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, Feb. 10 to March 23, 1932, by Alfred H. Barr, jr., Henry-Russell Hitchcock, jr., Philip Johnson and Lewis Mumford. Arthur Drexler, ed, The Mies van der Rohe Archive, 20 vols. (New York: The Museum of Modern Art / Garland, 1986–92), 2: 246–81 and 5: 169–72. Berliner Bild-Bericht. Exterior view of the German Pavilion from the pool © Fundació Mies van der Rohe 52 Berliner Bild-Bericht. Interior view of the German Pavilion with the chrome-plated cross-shaped post organizing the space © Fundació Mies van der Rohe 53 Berliner Bild-Bericht. Interior view of the German Pavilion with the chrome-plated cross-shaped post organizing the space © Fundació Mies van der Rohe 53 Close-up of fabric hanging in two perpendicular dihedrals. Interior view of the Deutsche Seide section, Textile palace. Design attributed to Lilly Reich © Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin Berliner Bild-Bericht. Close-up of chrome-plated cross-shaped post, German Pavilion. Design attributed to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe © Fundació Mies van der Rohe COMMON REPERTOIRE OF CONSTRUCTIVE DETAILS Mies and Lilly Reich. Reconstructed Pavilion, 1986. Photo: Adrià Goula Barcelona International Industrial Exhibition, 1929 56 “What was the role of Lilly Reich in the design of the Barcelona Pavilion?” Mies and Lilly Reich in Tessin, summer 1933 Library of Congress, Washington DC Lilly Reich’s Apartment at the Exhibition The Dwelling in Our Time, Berlin, 1931 Lilly Reich, Bourgeois Apartment at The Dwelling in Our Time, Berlin, 1931 Lilly Reich in Tessin with Bauhaus students, 1933. Oskar Schlemmer, Bauhaus Staircase, 1932 Magdalena Droste, “The Creative Pair: Lilly Reich and the Collaboration with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,” in Frau Architekt. Over 100 Years of Women in Architecture, Wasmuth, Tübingen, 2017, pp. 105-111. EVALUATION Visual Analysis Paper of one building (33%) Based on a maximum score of 20 points. Reasoned proposal of a building or exhibition of architecture (1/20 points). Outline of the visual analysis and argument to follow (3/20 points) [mid-term submission, October 16]. Final Visual Analysis Paper (16/20 points) Originality (in the selection of the work) Title and contents correspondence Introduction Visual analysis Overall argumentation Form (grammar, spelling, style) Photographs/visual material Bibliographic sources and quotations Final interpretation (culture and historical context) https://caixaforum.org/es/madrid/p/tiempos-inciertos_a168688864