Expressionist architecture

by Wolfgang Pehnt

Trade paperback

Genres: Architecture

231 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Paul]

Gave up after 78 pages. This is dense enough with information that it might appeal to an academic, but it’s not written in a way that would draw in the lay reader. The early “background” chapters seemed to presume a level of familiarity with the architects in question that I didn’t have – why should I care what Hermann Finsterlin thought about crystals, or what Bruno Taut had to say about the garden city, if I haven’t been told about their work yet? Things didn’t improve much in the middle chapters that presented a more chronological history, so I called it quits.

It’s nicely illustrated, at least; I enjoyed flipping through it more than reading it.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great summation of European architecture between the Art Nouveau era and the Bauhaus after the DeStil guy showed up (indeed the Bauhaus initially embraced a very expressionist aesthetic and mysticism as evidenced by Lionel Feninger's inaugural manifesto woodcut). Copious illustrations.