Peter Behrens1868-1940

The pioneer of corporate and industrial design.

The chronological contextof Behren’s architecture

Chronological context in Architecture

- Modernism to Postmodernism -1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

First generation

modernists

Second generation modernists

Third generation

modernistsThe pioneers of modernism.

They each treated form, space,

structure, materials and ornament in

novel ways.

These were the architects of ‘high

modernism’- the universal

International Style- as well as the

fashionable Art Deco period.

These were the architects of

Postmodernism.

They reacted against the orthodoxy of

high modernism.

Peter Behrens - Berlin Walter Gropius Frank Gehry

Auguste Perret - Paris Le Corbusier Philip Johnson

C. R. Mackintosh - Glasgow Mies van der Rohe Charles Moore

Otto Wagner - Vienna Gerrit Reitveld I. M. Pei

Adolf Loos - Vienna William Van Allen Michael Greaves

Louis Sullivan - Chicago Napier Art Deco architects Louis Kahn

Frank Lloyd Wright - Chicago and mid-western states of USA Robert Venturi

The context of his architecture

Geographical context:

Peter Behrens was a German designer and architect whose teaching and practice were based mostly in Berlin.

Berlin

Context continued…Historical context:

Peter Behrens was an important pioneer of the modern movement. His most significant buildings were constructed in the years between 1908 to 1914.

He was an exact contemporary of the Scottish pioneering architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Behrens first designed in the Jugendstil (‘youth style’), the German equivalent of Art Nouveau. But after about 1904 he, like Otto Wagner in Vienna, abandoned Jugendstil and developed a less decorative, more geometric, industrial aesthetic.

In 1907 Behrens helped establish the Deutscher Werkbund, a group of German architects, designers and industrialists who sought to merge traditional handcraft production with industrial mass-production to produce affordable, good quality, machine-made commercial products.

Between 1907 and 1914 Behrens served as design consultant for AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gessellschaft) in Berlin. He designed the commercial publications and products for this electrical company from its letterheads to all its products and appliances including whole assembly buildings. In this role he became the world’s first industrial/corporate designer.

While working for AEG Behrens trained the three giants of the International style: Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe.

Context continued…Social context:

As a member of the Jugendstil movement in Germany, Behrens, like other Art Nouveau advocates, embraced the concept of total design, a total environment in which all the components are fused into one Gesamtkunstwerk. This is evident in his own house where he designed all the furnishings and fixtures as well as the house itself. This concept, derived from the English Arts and Crafts movement, became a theme throughout modernism as evident in the organic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and the functionalist designs of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe.

Behrens, along with other members of the Deutscher Werkbund, wanted to change the German social structure from a class-divided society to an industrially-based, egalitarian mass society. To re-humanise the economy, the society and culture. This social vision was shared by his students Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius.

For Behrens the pressing artistic concern of the time was the reconciliation of artistic design with modern materials and industrial methods of production. He wanted to create well-designed, useful, everyday objects and appliances that were accessible and affordable for the masses. This required mass-production, which in turn necessitated objects be made, at least in part, of industrial materials and standardised components. Standardisation became a design issue at this time because it limited the freedom and scope of artist-designers. Behrens was one of the first to push for this new type of artistic creation.

The significant Behrens building.

AEG Turbine Building, Berlin, 1909

Stylistic features Behrens’ initial designs were in

the jugendstil ‘youth style’ of German Art Nouveau. This is evident in the design of his own house of 1901 (at right).

Also evident is his admiration of the simplicity and honesty of the British Arts an Crafts movement and its use of vernacular forms and natural materials.

From 1907, with the establishment of the Deutscher Werkbund, a change emerged in his designs. His work became less ornamental and more rational; less handcrafted and more machine-like; less individual and more standardised; he abandoned the preference for natural materials for modern, industrial materials.

He was one of the first modernists to develop what became known as the ‘machine aesthetic’. This is evident in the form, structure and materials of the products he designed for AEG.

Stylistic features of the AEG Turbine Hall

Skeletal steel frame enables the

walls to become transparentexpanses of plate glass to

admitsun, air and light for workers.

Continuous interior space, toplitby an extensive skylight along

theapex of the hinged roof, allowsthe internal gantry crane tofunction unimpeded along theentire length of the building.

Clear expression of modernmaterials: steel, concrete andplate glass.

Rectangular forms, clean shapes

and outlines unfettered withornamentation.

The walls are structurally free; the corner pylons

and pediment, that although appear weighty and

structural, are merely thin concrete shells.

Stylistic features of the AEG Turbine Hall

Behrens’ AEG Turbine Hall (right) resembles a classical temple (eg. left).

The 14 steel girders down the side of the factory, partly set into the glazed walls, resemble the engaged colonnade down the side of classical temples.

The factory’s proportions make it appear massive and weighty, like a classical temple. The factory’s concrete forms resemble the stonework of temples.

The abstracted gable at the front of the factory resembles the segmented pediments of Roman temples (see insert).

Behrens used these classical references to give the factory grandeur and authority. He wanted to extol the place and achievements of early 20th century German industry.

A unity of material, form and function

AEG Small Motor Assembly Hall, Berlin, 1909

Uninterrupted functional space for

gantry crane to operate within.

Glass roof on south side to admit maximum light and sun.

Gantry crane rides along rails

on upper walls. Profile of crane

determines profile of roof.

Skeletal structure of exposed, hinged steel

girders support the crane mechanism.

Monumental form. Open, airy

transparent volume of space.

Industrial materials, engineering rational

and architectural expression combine.Concrete and brick non load-bearing walls.

Examples of Behrens-designed AEG products c.1910-14

.