Style Debates in Early 20th-Century German Architectural Discourse
In spite of the negative connotations ‘style’ has in contemporary architectural discourse, in early 20th-century Germany there was no consensus on the meaning or value of the concept amongst architects and critics. Although style was a dirty word for some like Hermann Muthesius, it represented the p...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Open Library of Humanities
2018-12-01
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| Series: | Architectural Histories |
| Online Access: | https://journal.eahn.org/articles/300 |
| _version_ | 1818216439652286464 |
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| author | Deborah Ascher Barnstone |
| author_facet | Deborah Ascher Barnstone |
| author_sort | Deborah Ascher Barnstone |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In spite of the negative connotations ‘style’ has in contemporary architectural discourse, in early 20th-century Germany there was no consensus on the meaning or value of the concept amongst architects and critics. Although style was a dirty word for some like Hermann Muthesius, it represented the pinnacle of achievement for others like Walter Curt Behrendt. Against the backdrop of Behrendt’s famous 'Victory of the New Building Style', of 1927, were very diverse understandings of the term. This plurality was partly due to conceptual confusion between ‘the styles’ and ‘style’, but it was also a legacy of Gottfried Semper’s and Alois Riegl’s respective efforts to resituate style as a practical and historiographical tool. Although style was endlessly debated between 1910 and 1930 by German architects, critics, and intellectuals of all stripes, later scholars have either largely overlooked its significance or used the term as a way of describing a particular group of works with a narrow set of formal tropes. The debates, the conceptual confusion, and the incredible variety of opinion over style in early 20th-century discourse have not been addressed, especially in relation to practicing architects. This essay examines some of the intersecting positions of several important German practitioners to show how the notion of style served as a conceptual framework for divergent modern practices. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T06:52:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-31def298c1794445bba8b99ec11cfd0c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-5833 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T06:52:00Z |
| publishDate | 2018-12-01 |
| publisher | Open Library of Humanities |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Architectural Histories |
| spelling | doaj.art-31def298c1794445bba8b99ec11cfd0c2022-12-22T00:34:03ZengOpen Library of HumanitiesArchitectural Histories2050-58332018-12-016110.5334/ah.300135Style Debates in Early 20th-Century German Architectural DiscourseDeborah Ascher Barnstone0University of Technology Sydney, Faculty of Design Architecture and BuildingIn spite of the negative connotations ‘style’ has in contemporary architectural discourse, in early 20th-century Germany there was no consensus on the meaning or value of the concept amongst architects and critics. Although style was a dirty word for some like Hermann Muthesius, it represented the pinnacle of achievement for others like Walter Curt Behrendt. Against the backdrop of Behrendt’s famous 'Victory of the New Building Style', of 1927, were very diverse understandings of the term. This plurality was partly due to conceptual confusion between ‘the styles’ and ‘style’, but it was also a legacy of Gottfried Semper’s and Alois Riegl’s respective efforts to resituate style as a practical and historiographical tool. Although style was endlessly debated between 1910 and 1930 by German architects, critics, and intellectuals of all stripes, later scholars have either largely overlooked its significance or used the term as a way of describing a particular group of works with a narrow set of formal tropes. The debates, the conceptual confusion, and the incredible variety of opinion over style in early 20th-century discourse have not been addressed, especially in relation to practicing architects. This essay examines some of the intersecting positions of several important German practitioners to show how the notion of style served as a conceptual framework for divergent modern practices.https://journal.eahn.org/articles/300 |
| spellingShingle | Deborah Ascher Barnstone Style Debates in Early 20th-Century German Architectural Discourse Architectural Histories |
| title | Style Debates in Early 20th-Century German Architectural Discourse |
| title_full | Style Debates in Early 20th-Century German Architectural Discourse |
| title_fullStr | Style Debates in Early 20th-Century German Architectural Discourse |
| title_full_unstemmed | Style Debates in Early 20th-Century German Architectural Discourse |
| title_short | Style Debates in Early 20th-Century German Architectural Discourse |
| title_sort | style debates in early 20th century german architectural discourse |
| url | https://journal.eahn.org/articles/300 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT deborahascherbarnstone styledebatesinearly20thcenturygermanarchitecturaldiscourse |