Expressionist Architecture

表現主義建築 / 1910s–1920s / Style / Modern Architecture

Architecture that speaks emotion and symbol through sculptural curves and brick detail. Mendelsohn's streamlines and the Amsterdam School's undulating housing mark modernism's other road, the one functionalism never absorbed.

Expressionist Architecture — Mendelsohn, Einstein Tower (CC BY-SA 3.0) · © Coenen — Mendelsohn, Einstein Tower (CC BY-SA 3.0) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Coenen

Expressionist Architecture — De Klerk, Het Schip (CC BY 3.0) · © Janericloebe — De Klerk, Het Schip (CC BY 3.0) · CC BY 3.0 · © Janericloebe

Expressionist Architecture — Housing block in the Spaarndammerbuurt — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Housing block in the Spaarndammerbuurt — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Sculptural curved masses
Expressive brickwork
Crystal and organic motifs
Handcrafted detail

Best used for

Giving housing or a civic building a face that is not mass produced
Letting the form itself carry meaning as a symbol for an institution

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Dictionary entry

Type: Letters carved into brick or stone and fused with the curved wall
Composition: Rounded corners, banded openings, the mass handled as sculpture
Material: Brick bonds that change place to place, expression built from shadow
Caution: Making the curves dramatic while filling every detail with catalogue parts, so up close there is no handwork and the building reads as signage.
Further study: Erich Mendelsohn / Michel de Klerk / Bruno Taut's glass visions

Related entries

German Expressionist Film (ドイツ表現主義映画)Shared effects: Rebellion.Compare Expressionist Architecture and German Expressionist Film
Organic Architecture (有機的建築)Same Modern Architecture lineage.Compare Expressionist Architecture and Organic Architecture

Cite this entry

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Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/expressionist-architecture
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