TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
(HMAWBI)
EXPRESSIONISM
THOUGHT AND THEORY
(AR-
EAINT HMUE KHIN
IV ARCH-3
2023-2024
CONTENTS
1. Expressionism
2. Expressionism in 1920
3. Expressionism since 1950
3.1 Characteristics
3.2 Material
3.3 Brick Expressionism
4. Neo Expressionist Architecture
4.1 Characteristics and Features
4.2 Evaluation of Neo Expressionist Architecture Considerations
4.3 Examples of Neo Expressionist Architecture
5. Expressionism in Architecture
6. Famous Expressionist Architecture
7. Expressionist Architects
7.1 Bruno Taut
7.2 Erich Mendelsohn
7.3 Frank Owen Gehry
8. Conclusion
9. Reference list
1. Expressionism
Expressionist architecture uses the form of a building as a means to evoke or
express the inner sensitivities and feelings of the viewer or the architect. This tendency
can be coupled with the notation that the form can represent the physical manifestation of
a transpersonal or mystic spirit. Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement
in Europe during the first decades of the 20 th century in parallel with the expressionist
visual and performing arts that especially developed and dominated in Germany. Brick
expressionism is a special variant of this movement in western and northern Germany, as
well as in the Netherlands (where it is known as the Amsterdam School). Expressionism
emerged in poetry and painting, where it attempted to distort reality to express subjective,
emotional experience. It quickly spread through all of the arts and architecture, pioneered
by a group of architects from Germany, Austria and Denmark.
Einstein Tower Goetheanum
Amsterdam School
2. Expressionism in 1920
The term “Expressionist architecture” initially described the activity of the
German, Dutch, Austrian, Czech and Danish avant-grade from 1910 until 1930.
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; distortion, fragmentation or the communication of violent or
overstressed emotion. The style was characterized 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. Economic conditions severely limited the number of built
commissions between 1914 and the mid-1920s, 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, and provided supplemental
incomes for designers attempting to challenge conventions in a harsh economicate.
Bruno Taut Glass Pavilion
Important events in Expressionist architecture include; the Werkbunk
Exhibition(1914) in Cologne, the completion and theatrical running of the Grobes
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 such
as Bruno Taut, Erich 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. In 1933, after the Nazi seizure of power in
Germany, expressionist art was outlawed as degenerate. Until the 1970s scholars (Most
notably Nikolaus Pevsner) commonly played down the influence of the expressionists on
the later International Style, but this has been reevaluated in recent years.
3. Expressionism since the 1950s
The influential architectural critic and historian Sigfried Giedion in his book
space, time and architectural (1941) dismissed Expressionist architecture as a side show
in the development of functionalism. In the middle of the twentieth century, in the 50s
and 60s, many architects began designing in a manner reminiscent of Expressionist
architecture. In the post war period, a variant of Expressionism, Brutalism, had an honest
approach to materials, that in its unadorned use of concrete was similar to the use of brick
by the Amsterdam School. The designs of Le Corbusier took a turn for the expressionist
in his brutalist phase, but more so in his Notre-Dame du Haut.
In Mexico, in 1953, German émigré Mathias Goeritz, published the
“Arquitectura Emocional” (Emotional architecture) manifesto where he declared that
“architecture’s principal function is emotion”. Modern Mexican architect Luis Barragan
adopted the term that influenced his work. The two of them collaborated in the project
Torres de Satelite (1957-58) guided by Goeritz’s principles of Arquitectura Emocional.
Another mid-century modern architect to evoke expressionism was Eero Saarinen. A
similar aesthetic can be found in later buildings such as Saarinen’s 1962 TWA Terminal
at JFK International Airpot. His TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport has an
organic form, as close to Herman Finsterlin’s Formspiels as any other, save Jorn Utzon’s
Sydney Opera House. It was only in the 1970s that expressionism in architecture came to
be re-evaluated in a more positive light. More recently still, the aesthetics and tactility of
expressionist architecture have found echo in the works of Enric Miralles, most notability
his Scottish Parliament building, deconstructivist architects such as Zaha Hadid and
Daniel Libeskind, as well as Canadian Aboriginal architect Douglas Cardinal.
Chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut TWA Terminal Berliner Philharmonie
Sydney Opera House Interior of Berliner Philharmonie Yoyogi National Gymnasium
Finlandia Hall Lotus Temple Hallgrimskirkja
Vitra Design Museum Vitra Fire Station Jewish Museum
Walt Disney Concert Hall Walt Disney Concert Hall (inside) Auditorio de Tenerife
3.1 Characteristics
Expressionist architecture was individualistic and in many ways eschewed
aesthetic dogma, but it is still useful to develop some criteria which defines it. Though
containing a great variety and differentiation, many points can be found as recurring in
works of Expressionist architecture, and are evident in some degree in each of its works:
1. Distortion of form for an emotional effect.
2. Subordination of realism to symbolic or stylistic expression of inner experience.
3. An underlying effort at achieving the new, original, and visionary
4. Profusion of works on paper, and models, with discovery and representations of
concepts more important than pragmatic finished products.
5. Often hybrid solutions, irreducible to a single concept.
6. Themes of natural romantic phenomena, such as caves, mountains, lighting, crystal
and rock formations. As such it is more mineral and elemental than florid and organic
which characterized its close contemporary Art Nouveau.
7. Uses creative potential of artisan craftsmanship.
8. Tendency more towards the Gothic than the Classical architecture. Expressionist
architecture also tends more towards the Romanesque and the Rococo than the
classical.
9. Though a movement in Europe, expressionism is as eastern as western. It draws as
much from Moorish, Islamic, Egyptian, and Indian art and architecture as from Roman
or Greek.
[Link] of architecture as a work of art.
3.2 Materials
A recurring concern of expressionist architects was the use of materials and how
they might be poetically expressed. Often, the intention was to unify the materials in a
building so as to make it monolithic. The collaboration of Bruno Taut and the utopian
poet Paul Scheerbart attempted to address the problems of German society by a doctrine
of glass architecture. Such utopianism can be seen in the context of a revolutionary
Germany where the tussle between nationalism and socialism had yet to resolve itself.
Taut and Scheerbart imagined a society that had freed itself by breaking from past forms
and traditions, impelled by an architecture that flooded every building with multicolored
light and represented a more promising future. They published texts on this subject and
built the Glass Pavilion at the 1914 Werkbund Exhibition. Inscribed around the bases of
the dome were aphoristic sayings about the material, penned by Scheerbart: “Coloured
glass destroys hatred” , “Without a glass palace life is a burden” , “Glass brings us a new
era, building in brick only does us harm.”
Another example of expressionist use of monolithic materials was by Erich
Mendelsohn at the Einstein Tower. Not to be missed was a pun on the tower’s namesake,
Einstein, and an attempt to make the building out of the one stone, that is ,Ein Stein.
Though not cast in one pour of concrete (due to technical difficulties, brick and stucco
were used partially) the effect of the building is an expression of the fluidity of concrete
before it is cast. ‘Architecture of Steel and Concrete’ was the title of a 1919 exhibition of
Mendelsohn’s sketches at Paul Cassirer’s gallery in Berlin.
Brick was used in a similar fashion to express the inherent nature of the material.
Josef Franke produced some characteristic expressionist churches in the Ruhrgebiet in the
1920s. Bruno Taut used brick as a way to show mass and repetition in his Berlin housing
estate “Legien-Stadt”. In the same way as their Arts and Crafts movement predecessors,
to expressionist architects, populism, naturalism, and according to Pehnt “Moral and
sometimes even irrational arguments were adduced in favor of building in brick.” With
its color and pointillist like visual increment, brick became to expressionism what stucco
later became to the International Style.
3.3 Brick Expressionism
The term Brick Expressionism (German: Backsteinexpressionismus) describes a
specific variant of expressionism that uses bricks, tiles or clinker bricks as the main visible
building material. Buildings in the style were erected mostly in the 1920s. The style’s
regional centres were the larger cities of Northern Germany and the Ruhr area, but the
Amsterdam School belongs to the same category.
Amsterdam’s 1912 cooperative-commercial Scheepvaarthuis (Shipping Houses)
is considered the starting point and prototype for Amsterdam School work: Brick
construction with complicated masonry, traditional massing, and the integration of an
elaborate scheme of building elements (decorative masonry, art glass, wrought-iron work,
and exterior figurative sculpture) that embodies and expresses the identity of the building.
The school flourished until about 1925.
The great international fame of German Expressionism is not related to the
German Brick Expressionist architects, but to the German Expressionist painters of the
two groups Die Brucke in Dresden since 1905 (Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff, Heckel,
Nolde) and Der Blaue Reiter in Munich since 1912 (Kandinsky, Marc, Macke, Munter,
Jawlensky).
Chilehaus Amsterdam Scheepvaarthuis
4. Neo Expressionist Architecture
Neo Expressionist Architecture Style is most common in religious and public
buildings. Neo expressionist structures are based on the continuity of form and a tendency
to avoid the rectangle and right angle. Neo Expressionist Architecture Style has its roots
in the first wave of Expressionist architecture that emerged in Germany in 1910, and
continued until after World War II. Few examples of early Expressionist architecture are
found in America. According to “Architectural Movements of the Recent Past” by Alan
Higgins. Although the Neo Expressionist Architecture Style of the mid-1950s has its roots
in this earlier movement, it is not simply a continuation or adoption of earlier forms. Neo
Expressionist architecture, another rejection of Miesian modernism, is based upon a new
breed of artist-architects expressing their own interpretation of form, design, and
meaning. Architecture is not based upon symbolism or gained knowledge; instead,
meaning is conveyed on a non-intellectual or emotional level and directly through the
form. Strict geometric shapes are rejected and sculpted forms emerge. Innovation of
building materials such as concrete, plastics, and laminates are often incorporated in the
design to achieve the artistic forms. Curved and angled concrete or brick faced walls are
common. Dramatic, irregular shapes dominate and arches are common. Sculpted forms
rather than geometric shapes dominate. Building materials take advantage of modern
innovations in laminates, plastics, stuccoes, and concrete work. The architecture is meant
to evoke an emotional, not an intellectual response. Neo Expressionist Architecture Style
is sculpture-like and theatrical in appearance.
Vitra Design Museum
4.1 Characteristics and Features
*Curved/Angled Concrete and/ or brick walls
*Dramatic, Irregular shapes, Tendency to avoid the rectangle and right angle
*Massive sculpted forms; Concept of architecture as a piece of sculpture
*Emphasis on structural engineering
*Distortion of form for an emotional effect
*Relinquishment of functional qualities for stylistic expression
*Cantilevered Roofs
*Laminated Woods
*Organic Design
*Fragmented lines
*Lack of symmetry is common
*Sculptural forms
*Non-traditional structural elements
*Distortion of form to evoke emotion
*Organic design
*Experimental materials
*Unconventional roof designs
*Irregularly shaped windows
*Same materials used inside and out
*Roofs as continuation of walls
*Use of topography as design element
*Use of cantilever
*Laminated wood
*Asymmetrical
4.2 Evaluation of Neo Expressionist Architecture Considerations
Neo Expressionist Architecture Style buildings will most often be considered for
eligibility as an individual resource. To be eligible, Neo Expressionist Architecture Style
buildings should be sculptural, evoke emotions, and have an unconventional roof design.
Other primary and secondary features will help evoke emotions and the sculptural nature
of the building. The setting and area landscaping are often critical components of this
architectural style. It is necessary to document the concepts and ideas that were used in
the design.
4.3 Examples of Neo Expressionist Architecture
Berliner Philharmonie
One of the best examples of Neo Expressionist Architecture in Germany is
architect Hans Scharoun’s Berliner Philharmonie, the concert hall for the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra. Built between 1956 and 1963, the building features a streamlined
glass and white front that gives way to gold walls and vertical panels that rise to a curving
point. It’s completely asymmetrical and looks a bit like a space ship.
Berliner Philharmonie
TWA Flight Center
In the United States, one of the most famous Neo-Expressionist buildings is the
TWA Flight Center at JFK International Airport in New York. The building was built in
1962 and designed by Eero Saarinen. The structure once served as the terminal for TWA
airlines. It’s a space-age vision in white, full of curving lines, graceful arches, and glass
elements that rise to two segments that feel almost like streamlined alien wings. And it
looks nothing like the Berliner Philharmonie. However, both structures do stand out. They
make their own statements and certainly don’t copy past architectural trends.
TWA Flight Center
5. Expressionism in Architecture
Expressionist architecture took advantage of the many characteristics associated
with the movement’s other works of art, including distortion of form, themes of
romanticism, expression of inner experience and the conception of architecture as a work
of art, among others. Much of the movement’s builds featured Gothic, Romanesque and
Rococo affinities.
Bruno Taut’s Glass Pavilion is one of the earliest examples of expressionist
architecture. The structure was built in 1914 as a feature of the Cologne Deutscher
Werkbund Exhibition. Constructed using only concrete and glass, the exterior of the
pavilion showcases a vibrantly colored prismatic dome and a grand staircase. The interior
of the building featured a kaleidoscope of color from the crown above it and a seven-
tiered cascading waterfall.
Glass Pavilion’s interior featuring the Glass Pavilion
seven-tiered waterfall
The Einstein Tower is another striking example of expressionist-style
architecture. The observatory was built by German Architect Erich Mendelsohn from
1919 to 1921 and was envisioned to hold a solar telescope. Mendelsohn designed the
building to reflect the radical theories formed by Einstein- specially his theory of
motion. The structure is built with brick but covered with stucco to give it its smooth,
tidal-like exterior. More recent examples of expressionist style architecture include
Walt Disney Concert Hall designed by Frank Gehry in Los Angeles, the Lotus Temple
designed by Fariborz Sahba in Delhi, and Zaha Hadid’s Vitra Fire Station in Weil am
Rhein.
Einstein Tower
6. Famous Expressionist Architectures
[Link] Hall -Wroclaw, Poland
The Centennial Hall is the name of a building in Wroclaw, Poland, that was
originally referred to as “Hala Ludowa” or “People’s Hall”. It was one of the first
examples of Expressionist architecture in Europe as it was completed between 1911 and
1913. The building was designed by German architect Max Berg (1870-1947) during a
period in history when Wroclaw was still part of the German Empire. It was
commissioned to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1813 War of Liberation
against Napoleon. It’s an early example of a reinforced concrete building and was listed
as a UNESCO site in 2006.
Centennial Hall
[Link] Opera House- Sydney, Australia
The Sydney Opera House isn’t just one of the most famous Expressionist
buildings in the world, this building in Sydney, is also one of the most iconic structures
ever built. This multi-venue opera house was designed by Danish Architect Jorn Utzon
and occupies all of Bennelong Point on Syndey Harbour. The building consists of multiple
concrete shells that form the roof of the various venues of the performance arts center.
With a maximum height of 65 meters (213 feet), it’s also one of the most distinctive
landmarks in the city. The entire building covers an area of 1.8 hectares (4.4 acres) of
land.
Sydney Opera House
3. Het Schip – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Het Schip is the name of a remarkable building in Amsterdam. It’s the epitome
of the Amsterdam School of architecture, a style that was popular between 1910 and 1930
and was part of the international Expressionist movement. The building was designed by
a Dutch architect named Michel De Klerk (1884- 1923) who was one of the founding
members of the Amsterdam School. The building complex consists of various facilities
for working- class families. The design was an incredible improvement for poor people
who lived in Amsterdam during the early 20th century.
Het Schip
4. Borsigturm -Berlin, Germany
The Borsigturm or Borsig Tower is a building in Berlin and one of the first
skyscrapers in the city. The building is far from being as high as the skyscrapers in New
York City at the time as it only reaches a height of 65 meters (213 feet). The lower sections
of the tower are typical of the industrial architecture that was popular in the 1920s. The
upper section features an Expressionist Design, making it the first building that combines
both architectural styles into one structure.
Borsigturm
5. Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum-Bremen, Germany
The Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum is the first museum in the world that was
dedicated to a female artist. Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) was one of the leading
German Expressionist artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the museum is
dedicated to her paintings. The building was commissioned by art patron Ludwig Roselius
who was a fan of Modersohn- Becker’s works. The building was completed in 1927 and
is the epitome of the Brick Expressionist movement. This was a variation of the general
Expressionist style that was popular in the Netherlands and Germany.
Paula Modersohn- Becker Museum
6. Hallgrimskirkja- Reykjavik, Iceland
Hallgrimskirkja is one of the most stunning churches in the world. This Lutheran
church is located in Reykjavik, the capital city of Iceland. The building stands 74.5 meters
(244 feet) tall and although this isn’t too high, it still dominates the city’s skyline. The
construction of this remarkable building in Reykjavik started in 1945 but it wasn’t fully
completed until 1986. The Expressionist design of the building was inspired by a famous
church in Copenhagen called Grundtvig’s Church, a building that was completed between
1927 and 1945.
Hallgrimskirkja
7. Yoyogi National Gymnasium – Tokyo, Japan
The Yoyogi National Gymnasium is a building in Tokyo that was
completed between 1961 and 1964. It was constructed to serve as the main venue of
the swimming and diving events of the 1964 Summer Olympics which were held in
Japan’s capital city that year. The building was designed by the Japanese architect
Kenzo Tange (1913-2005), a man renowned for his ability to blend traditional
Japanese with modern architecture. The building’s arena seats 13291 people and is
still frequently used for ice hockey, basketball, and futsal events.
Yoyogi National Gymnasium
8. Lotus Temple- Dehli, India
The lotus Temple is an immense Bahai House of Worship in Dehli, just
south of New Dehli, the capital city of India. The building was completed in 1986 and
features a similar design as the Sydney Opera House. The design of the building in
India aims to replicate a lotus flower. The entire structure consists of 27 free standing
petals that are clad with marble. This arrangement incorporates 9 entrance doors that
lead up to the central hall of the building. The building reaches a height of 34.27 meters
(112.4 feet) and has a diameter of 70 meters (230 feet).
Lotus Temple
9. Anzeiger- Hochhaus- Hannover, Germany
The Anzeiger Hochhaus is a building in the German city of Hannover. It
stands 51 meters (167.32 feet) tall and was one of the first highrise buildings in the
city upon completion in 1928. It’s another prominent example of the Brick
Expressionist architectural style that was popular in the country during the 1920s. The
most stunning feature of the building is the green dome that tops it. This dome is 12
meters (39.37 feet) high and makes it a very distinctive landmark in Hannover.
Whether or not it has something to do with it remains unknown, but it was one of the
few buildings in central Hannover that survived the Allied bombings during World
War II.
Anzeiger-Hochhaus-Hannover
10. Auditorio de Tenerife-Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
The Auditorio de Tenerlfe is officially known as the “Auditorio de
Tenerife Adan Martin” and is a stunning performance arts venue in Santa Cruz de
Tenerife, the capital city of the Spanish Island. It was designed by the Spanish architect
Santiago Calatrava and completed in 2003. The location near the Atlantic Ocean in a
central area of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the remarkable design have made it one of
the city’s most stunning landmarks. The so-called “Great Arc” was a first in
architectural history as it’s only supported in two areas. The resemblance to the Sydney
Opera House has resulted in Santa Cruz being dubbed “The Sydney of the Atlantic”.
Auditorio de Tenerife
7. Expressionist Architects
Bruno Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938)
Bruno Julius Florian Taut was a renowned German architect, urban
planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage (“taut” means “nation” in
Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is known for his theoretical
works as well as hid building designs. Taut adopted the futuristic ideals and techniques
of the avant-grade as seen in the prismatic dome of the Glass Pavilion, which he built
for the association of the German glass industry for the German glass industry for the
1914 Werhbund Exhibition in Cologne. His aim was to make a whole building out of
glass instead of merely using glass as a surface or decorative material. He created
glass-treaded metal staircases, a waterfall with underlighting, and colored walls of
mosaic glass.
Bruno Taut
Erich Mendelsohn (21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953)
Erich Mendelsohn was a German-British architect, known for his
expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic
functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinemas. Mendelsohn was a
pioneer of the Art Deco and Streamline Modern architecture, notably with his 1921
Mossehaus design.
Erich Mendelsohn
Frank Owen Gehry (February 28, 1929)
Frank Owen Gehry is a Canadian born American architect and designer.
A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California,
have become world-renowned attractions. His style is sometimes described as
Deconstructivist or postmodern, although he has rejected the second term. His works
are considered among the most important of contemporary architecture in the 2010
World Architecture Survey, leading Vanity Fair to call him “the most important
architect of our age”.
Frank Gehry
8. Conclusion
The style of expressionism can be considered one of the most emotional
and bound to nature. The most well known features of the expressionism as a style are
fantastic shapes and images that develop a single unity with the environment. The style
has numerous representatives that can be also discussed within the bounds of other
styles and movements as they all are interconnected. Expressionism is a permanent
and recurrent tendency in modern architecture. The tendencies typical of
expressionism can be traced in other successive styles and movements in modern
architecture. The forms of expressionist buildings are full of fantastical influence and
the materials are not typical of that architectural era. The expressionism in architecture
has influenced the development of contemporary architecture as well as successive
movements and styles in architecture and arts.
9. Reference
1. [Link]
2. [Link]
3. [Link]
4. [Link]
5. [Link]
