Notes on Bruno Taut's Glass House

Bruno Taut was an influential architect in the modern movement (1910-1930).
His most famous work is the Glass House, built for the 1914 Werkbund exhibition.
Adolf Behne labeled the Glass House as expressionist architecture.
Taut's career trajectory was affected by WWI and the rise of the Nazis, leading him to Japan and Turkey.
The Glass House was an exhibition architecture featuring an upper portion, an oculus, a cascade, and a projection area.

Rayner Banham and Paul Scheerbart were crucial in the reinterpretation of the Glass House.
The official history of the Glass House faced problems because of Paul Sherbok's collaboration.
Later historians overstated Paul Shear's role.
Bruno Taut's motives have been largely excluded.
Frederick Kepler and the Luxxor Syndicate also influenced the glass house.

Europeans collected exotic plants, including the Victoria Regia lily from South America.
Victoria Regia houses were built to create artificial environments for these plants.
Joseph Paxton drew inspiration for the Crystal Palace from the Victoria Regia.
Louis van Hout cultivated Victoria Regia on the European continent which lead to a different design to greenhouses and botanical hothouses with a spherical arrangement.
Taut's film script mentions Victoria Regia and describes wondrous chambers and giant floating leaves.

Luxor prismatic glass tiles were used to redirect light inside buildings.
Exhibition architecture featured domes and glass like at the Chicago exhibition (1893) and the Paris exhibition (1900).
Frederick Kepler was connected to exhibition architecture.
Taut mentioned that he owed his glass house to the Luminous Palace.

Taut was a heavy smoker.
The building's colors matched almost perfectly to Taut.
Hugo Zaitz and Martin Hammerschmidt produced the building with orientalist influences.