Bruno Taut

Bruno Julius Florian Taut (May 4, 1880, Konigsberg, Germany - December 24, 1938, Istanbul), was a prolific German architect, urban planner and author active in the Weimar period.

Related Topics:
May 4 - 1880 - Konigsberg, Germany - December 24 - 1938 - Istanbul - Architect - Urban planner - Weimar

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Taut is best known in the English-speaking world for his theoretical work, speculative writings and a handful of exhibition buildings. Taut's best-known single building is the prismatic dome of the Glass Pavilion at the Cologne Werkbund Exhibition (1914). His sketches for "Alpine Architecture" (1917) are the work of an unabashed Utopian visionary, and he is variously classified as a Modernist and an Expressionist.

Related Topics:
Glass Pavilion - Cologne - Werkbund Exhibition (1914) - Utopia - Modernist - Expressionist

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This reputation does not accurately reflect Taut's extensive body of built work and his social and practical accomplishments.

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After training in Berlin and joining the office of Theodor Fischer in Stuttgart, Taut opened his own Berlin office in 1910. The elder architect Hermann Muthesius suggested that he visit England to understand the garden city movement. This trip would have a lasting impact. Muthesius would also introduce him to some of the figures of the Deutscher Werkbund, including Walter Gropius.

Related Topics:
Berlin - Theodor Fischer - Stuttgart - Hermann Muthesius - Garden city movement - Deutscher Werkbund - Walter Gropius

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He completed two housing projects in Magdeburg from 1912 through 1915, directly influenced by the humane functionalism and green urban design solutions of the garden city movement. He served as city architect in Magdeburg from 1921 to 1923.

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In 1924 he was made chief architect of GEHAG, a private housing concern, and designed several successful large residential developments ("Gross-Siedlungen") in Berlin, notably the 1925 Horseshoe Development ("Hufeisensiedlung"), named for its configuration around a pond, and the 1926 Uncle Tom's Cabin Development ("Onkel-Toms Hutte") in Zehlendorf, oddly named for a local restaurant and set in a thick grove of trees. The designs featured controversially modern flat roofs, humane access to sun, air and gardens, and generous amenities like gas, electric light, and bathrooms. Critics on the political Right complained that these developments were too opulent for 'simple people'. The progressive Berlin mayor Gustav Böss defended them: "We want to bring the lower levels of society higher."

Related Topics:
GEHAG - Zehlendorf - Gustav Böss

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Taut's team completed over 12,000 dwellings between 1924 and 1931. GEHAG is still in business, and has a horseshoe as its logo as tribute to Taut.

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Taut worked in the Soviet Union in 1932 and 1933, and came home in February 1933 to a hostile political environment. He fled to Switzerland, then Takasaki in Japan, where he produced three influential books on Japanese culture and architecture, and did furniture and interior design work. Offered a job as Professor of Architecture at Istanbul Technical University, Taut moved to Turkey in 1936, wrote at least one more book, and designed a number of educational buildings in Ankara, before dying prematurely in 1938.

Related Topics:
Soviet Union - Takasaki - Japan - Istanbul Technical University

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A lifelong painter, Taut is unique among his European modernist contemporaries in his devotion to color. He applied lively, clashing colors to his first major commission, the 1912 Falkenberg housing estate in Berlin, which became known as the "Paint Box Estates". The 1914 Glass Pavilion, familiar from black and white reproduction, was also brightly colored. Taut's distinction from his Modernist contemporaries was never clearer than at the 1927 Weissenhofsiedlung housing exhibition in Stuttgart. As opposed to other pure-white entries from Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Walter Gropius, Taut's house Number 19 was painted up in primary colors. Mies hated it.

Related Topics:
1912 - Falkenberg housing estate - Paint Box Estates - 1927 - Weissenhofsiedlung housing exhibition - Stuttgart - Mies van der Rohe - Le Corbusier - Walter Gropius

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Much of Taut's work in German remains untranslated to English.

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