MA L4 - Expressionism & Constructivism

Expressionism and Russian constructivism, two architectural movements that took place at the same time. These concepts address people in a new way, view people as spiritually gifted. 

Artists started addressing the spiritual dimensions of humans, underlying concepts of expressionism. 

Bruno Taut (1880-1938)

Bruno Taut was german architect who started his career before WWI. He addressed humans as spiritual beings and believed in the spiritual power of glass, that helped increase the spirituality present in a human.

Today we will look a building by Taut created for the Werkbund exhibition. 

Glass house, a pavillion that was situated at the gates of the exhibition, close to the amusement park. 

Taut aimed to combine two goals, the first was to exhibit modern building materials (glass), the second was to use this location to provide a special spiritual experience. 

This is the Glass House Pavilion by Bruno Taut. At first glance it is a very strong and strange form, it has a concrete base, its somewhat organic. Perfect geometric forms. The most remarkable feature is the dome roof. The building is designed to stick out of the natural ground, turns the organic basement into a more artistic, crystalline form. 

It's most striking element is the dome roof, which rises above the ground level. The structural elements of the base connect smoothly to the roof. Colored glass is used to enhance the glass's effect, fitting into Taut's overall vision. It features a mix of rounded and geometric shapes.

The use of glass to provide a spiritual experience.

“Glass Poetry” by Paul Scheerbart is featured in verses displayed along the supporting ring of the cupola. 

It states "the coloured glass destroys hate, light wants to cross the universe and is alive like a crystal..." glass is everything that allows people to start a new kind of life, to connect with the universe, leaving behind everything that is heavy, that is a burden.

The pavillion combines culture with industry. The project was paid by the glass company: Luxfer. The colored glass symbolizes the destruction of hate, as glass promotes connection among people and allows them to leave behind both happiness and burdens. 

This contrasts with traditional materials like brick and stone.

It represents a culture of spiritualized form intertwined with industry, exemplified by Luxfer glass bricks.

Taut designed the pavilion as a transitional space, a building meant for visiting and passing through. 

Despite its small size, it offers a rich experiential quality. As a visiting building, it features a carefully crafted scenography that facilitates "rites of passage," serving as a process for higher spiritual purification.

Metal structure filled with glass bricks leading to the upper floor. The pavillion is an exhibition space with these showcases of the glass industry (the lamp is also an exhibit). The entire pavillion is an exhibit in itself, showing what you can do with coloured glass. The floor is also coloured glass. 

The pavillion is an exhibition space. The lamp is an exhibit of itself. The entire building is a exhibit of itself (with floor ornamentation).

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Colour atmosphere in the inside 

Cascade Room: 

- Guests arrived from the top center of the Cascade room with the lateral walls and dome are covered with colored tiles (imagine the colour used, silver and golden, that provide a precious and warm atmosphere) 

- The rear wall is made of glass prisms and painted glass. The entire room was designed to create an environment that provides a synaesthetic experience 

- A cascade with strings of glass pearls that create different forms and sounds of water. 

- The combination of colors, lights, and sounds creates a synesthetic environment.

The room is designed for an aesthetic experience, where the water produces distinct tones. 

The placement of glass pearls in the water modifies the sound of the flowing water. 

The concept is that as the water cascades down the building, it creates a unique auditory experience for each color, enhancing the overall sensory journey.

The synesthetic environment is enhanced by kaleidoscope projections.

The interplay of color, light, and sound within the crystalline environment allows visitors to have a transformative experience, leaving the building feeling reaffirmed and renewed.

The exhibition was closed in advance due to the start of WWI, a conflict that many initially welcomed as a positive force for society.

However, war was far from a spiritual experience; it resulted in industrial-scale killing. 

The impact of war was also felt at home, as soldiers would come home wounded, being forced to ask for money and sell postcards because they were unable to work. 

Politically, WWI fundamentally changed the German landscape, leading the German emperor abdicate (leave Germany) with the announcement of the Republic (the beginning the constitution) in the weeks following the end of the war.

Two photographs showing two important politicians, Liebknecht, the leader of the communist party, announcing the republic after the war. Scheidemann, leader of the social democratic party, doing the same thing. 

For artists, the horror and killing of the war brought a harsh revelation, they had to acknowledge that all their idea of creating a better man through art (glass: crystalline composition) did not work. They failed. Their earlier belief that using glass in art could create better individuals was proven ineffective in the face of such violence.

Artists found themselves in a disorientating situation, unsure of which direction to take. They didn't know what the public wanted or what they themselves desired in their work.

Artist responded not by proposing concrete projects but proposing a better world in the form of drawings. Utopian projects. 

One of the most important figures was Bruno Taut, who in the 1910s started a series of drawings in which he developed expressionist visions of a better world. These drawings were published in a book titled Alpine Architecture in 1918. 

In these drawings, Taut tried to envision a better world based on the fusion of crystal symbolics and romantic ideas of nature (in this case the alps). There is the idea that the alps represent a natural and crystalline world far away from the man-made world destroyed by the war. 

In this alpine architecture, he imagined a new place for dwelling, far from the urban centers.

He envisioned a better world, a crystalline world, a place removed from the horrors of the war. This envisioned world represented hope and beauty, offering an escape from the conflict that had ravaged society.

Alpine architecture is a book of 30 printed drawings, grouped in 5 sections. These sections tell the story of how crystal architecture would conquer the world and help mankind to start a better life.  

The first section, 5 drawings, is dedicated to the topic of ascending (in the mountains, he starts halfway up the mountains in the valley). Not a usual mountain landscape. 

Once the ascension is complete, one would arrive to the Crystal House (glass and crystal architecture). 

In the second section, Taut envisioned a panorama of mountain architecture, where the compilation of different kind of buildings fosters a sense of community. This design encourages people to feel connected, promoting shared experiences such as gathering and dining together. 

In this new alpine landscape, there are no natural boundaries or borders, which belong to the past. All beings live together within nature and the territory is shared by everyone.

In the third section, Taut relates his missions to concrete geographical regions. This is when the publication becomes interesting, he now explains how he would transform his visions into reality. 

Taut envisioned a utopia, he proposed to realise these projects across various areas of the Alps. This vision involved the destruction of nature. However, Taut believed this would allow people to live in an environment that provided the possibility to improve the people's mindset due to crystalline forms.

In the center of the third section, he publishes the only longer text as an appeal to the Europeans, a call for action. He asked people to unite to help him construct these crystalline buildings that cover the entire alpine chain.

Light and color are central themes in Taut's vision. He believed that the first step is to build the crystal city, serving as a model, before expanding this concept worldwide.

In the fourth section of Alpine Architecture, Taut describes his plan to first construct an alpine crystal city, followed by a global expansion (taking his idea worldwide). 

He proposed building crystal cities on some islands in the South Pacific Ocean (Ralik and Ratak Islands) and the North Sea (Rugen).

Then he talks about expanding his cities further to America. 

In the fifth section, he talks about taking his ideas one step further, going into the cosmic dimension. Extending to the entire solar system.  

Total vision fo the entire universe. 

Taut then returned to housing, becoming one of the leading figures in housing architecture in Germany.

Now we will look at a more concrete project by Hans Poelzig, The Great Theatre in Berlin (1919). Realised a huge theatre for a private stage director, which was part of an artform that impacts society (people to live another life after the impact of the war). 

He proposed a huge baroque, functional, building. From the outside we perceive a facade covered with lesenes (an architectural term for a narrow, low-relief vertical pillar on a wall) which acts as a unifying motif.Every element of the building was part of a huge organism. 

Regarding the indoor space, the huge auditory (5000 seats) with a stage at the center. There is a significant curved ceiling made of stalactites (mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of cave) that are meant to echo the community of spectators, turning the entire theatre into more than just a theatre, it's community architecture. 

The was further enhances with the light effects, creating a cave atmosphere. It was meant to foster the community spirit of the spectators. 

Similar architectural means were employed in the other parts of the theatre. For example in the lobby, one central space which adapt the motif of a palm tree, umbrella or a fountain. All this gives the feeling that this is a common shelter, a space where people can come together. This design invites people to gather together under the "umbrella," enhancing the sense of community.

Here, Hans used light to enhance the effect of the architecture.

When people left the theatre they would have changed their mindset. 

Moving onto another main figure of german expressionist architecture, Erich Mendelsohn, who firmly believed that architectures main task is to express energy and dynamic mouvement.

He worked on project during the war which translated his ideas into buildings with the architectural form being the expression of energy, force and motion (with the lines of the building conceived by lines of force). The forms are generated by an internal force of the matter. These "sketch buildings" challenged classical conceptions of support and load (no more columns, pillars or beams), this is a self-supporting building. 

Something about the tectonic dynamics of the building, it makes absolutely no sense. 

Another aspect to consider is how energy can transfer tension, highlighting the difference between inward dynamics and outward dynamics.

In 1915, he began working on animated projects, an example being Mendelsohn’s Einstein Tower in Potsdam. This structure, crafted from concrete, emphasizes the interplay between mass and energy.

The client for this project was Finlay-Freundlich, an astronomer and astrophysicist, and a friend of Mendelson. As a scientist, he was deeply fascinated by Einstein's theory of relativity, which claims that mass and energy are interconnected and consistent. Driven by this interest, he set out to observe the stars to provide evidence supporting the theory.

Freundlich was a scientist that challenged, wanted to test other scientists claims, he was not allowed to use the university observatory, so he built his own observatory nearby.  

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The initial sketch of the observatory (drawn by Freundlich) illustrated not only the required tower but also an underground space designed to shield him from noise and external disturbances. Looks like a usual observatory of the time. 

His main focus was not to contribute directly to the university but to use this location to illustrate the core principles of the theory of relativity.

The most important concept of this theory is the interconnection between mass and energy. Energy, such as light and motion, can be converted into mass. Therefore, architectural mass can be interpreted as motion, making this theory applicable to expressive art.

Mendelson translated Freundlich's initial sketch into his early vision for the Einstein Tower, creating a design that was more organic and unified in form.

He did a series of drawings, continually improving the organic character of the building and its dynamic expression, aiming to convey the idea of energy and masses capable of being set into motion.

In a paper written after the completion of the tower, he explores again the idea that masses have transcended gravity and inertia, concentrating all their energy into the core of their spatial presence.

This is the completed building, designed to represent the unity of a cohesive plastic form, organic form. Rather than being composed of separate assembled elements, it presents itself as a single, unified entity (an organism seemingly made of muscles, cords, and windows, which act as its eyes). With its ambivalent, dynamic expression, the structure appears to simultaneously creep forward and be held back.

Regarding the architectural forms, characterized as organic (featuring elements like a neck, spine, bottom, eyes with eyelids, and a mouth) are organic forms essentially intended to be dynamic and fluid in nature.

From the inside. 

To materialize energy in architectural form, concrete was essential. Only poured concrete could enable the creation of these dynamic and unified organic shapes.

However, in the years following WWI, it was not possible to pour this building in concrete. 

Mandelson had to realise the building with a brick structure and coat it with plaster and cement, in order to make it look like it was concrete. Therefore, the idea is more important than the structural truth. He pretended the building was in concrete to strengthen his idea. 

This brings us back to the idea that matter can be transformed into dynamic form, which is secondary. What truly matters is the energy contained within the tower.

The dynamic form is secondary, what is essential is the energy it conveys.

In the last part of the lesson, we will move to the Soviet Union's Dynamics of Revolution. 

A group of russian architects which formed the Russian Constructivists, they had strong idea regarding the spiritual quality and political dimension of art. 

- In 1917, the October Revolution led to the abolishment of private property and the establishment of a social and economic order based on communist ideology. 

- This resulted in a network of new art schools, such as VHUTEMAS, which focused on teaching abstract art. Their theories were grounded in the belief in a universal aesthetic language, aiming to express the ideals of the communist Soviet Union.

The sculptures are abstract and utilize industrial materials, embodying the rhythms of form and space. They are characterized as "scientific-technological" sculptures.

To illustrate this, let's examine a few examples, including an abstract sculpture by Antoine Pevsner was which was part of a series of scientific and technological sculptures. He was one of the teachers at art schools where abstract and modern sculptures were developed using industrial materials liking them to the modern time. These artistic objects were made to perform the rhythms of form and space.

Another influential artist was El Lissitzky, a painter, sculptor, and architect, who introduced the concept of "Prouns," an acronym for "Project for the Affirmation of the New" – a call to embrace innovation.

This idea advanced the artistic notion that a fundamental formal language could be applied across various fields, including art, architecture, furniture, and typography.

Starting with his painting and drawing, he then applied his concepts to conventional spatial configurations. One example being the "Proun Room," created for an art exhibition in Berlin, where he transformed his "Proun" paintings into sculptural reliefs and stage-like arrangements, designing immersive spaces for the exhibition.

The next step, he painted a project for an architect of a building, he proposed a fusion of abstract art and architecture. "Cloudhanger" which was following by the transforming of architectural art, like in this panting. 

Next, he painted a project for an architect, proposing a fusion of abstract art and architecture. This project, "Cloudhanger," was followed by a transformation of architectural art, as seen in this painting.

El Lissitzky's "Cloudhanger" was a project for gatehouses in Moscow, created in 1925. 

From painting to a proper architectural project, proposing the Cloudhangers as gate buildings around the historical center of Moscow. Using photomontage, he enhanced the project's realism, making the vision more tangible and impactful.

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Map of the different Cloudhanger he wanted to build around Moscow

Another iconic project is Vladimir Tatlin's Monument to the Third International, created by an artist who believed in developing entirely new, revolutionary designs. This monument, conceived for a Communist Party conference, featured an open structural lattice (a framework of intersecting strips, often made of wood or metal). The design included two interwoven spirals, symbolizing cultural dynamism, with the spiral serving as a dynamic figure representing the momentum of the Communist revolution.

He proposed transforming this paper project into a model featuring two spirals encircling three suspended volumes: a cube, a pyramid, and a cylinder. Each volume was to house an assembly hall, forming a large tower with three suspended chambers. The cube would serve as the headquarters for international meetings, the pyramid for the communist party, and the cylinder for the communist propaganda unit. Each volume was designed to rotate at a different pace: the cube annually, the pyramid monthly, and the cylinder daily, reflecting the unique dynamics of each institution.

Vladimir Tatlin was very serious about this project, he wanted to realise this 400 meter tall monument in Saint Petersburg (taller than the eiffel tower), needed to be painted red, symbolising colour of the communist revolution. This would have transformed the historical center of the city more than any political communist action, but it was not built. 

To conclude, during the first half of the 1920s, most projects remained on paper due to financial constraints following the war and revolution (there was little funding available to realize these designs). It wasn't until the second half of the decade that architects began constructing buildings, particularly public building such as workers' clubs, which were institutions containing theatre, libraries and lounges for workers (at the time everyone was considered to be a worker), so it was like a community center.

An example is the Rusakov Workers' Club in Moscow, renowned for its bold, avant-garde design, which aimed to convey communist ideals by transforming educational programs into sculptural, dynamic volumes (with the overarching theme of the "extension of the auditorium"). The architects who funded the project believed in the power of these forms to attract people to the building. The striking architecture was meant to provoke a reaction from spectators and contribute to the creation of the "new communist man or woman" living in the Soviet Union.