Industrial modernity. Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer
29/09/2021.
[Alfeld] Germany
metalocus, GONZALO GARCÍA MORENO
metalocus, GONZALO GARCÍA MORENO
Between 1911 and 1925, the architects Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer were in charge of the project and construction of the Fagus factory, a building complex that houses a shoe-last factory in the German city of Alfeld, in the federal state of Lower Saxony.
Among all the buildings in the complex, the office building stands out. In that building, their totally glazed and free of structural elements corners stand out, which led to the dematerialization of the wall and whose later influences made this building one of the most important of Modernism.
Among all the buildings in the complex, the office building stands out. In that building, their totally glazed and free of structural elements corners stand out, which led to the dematerialization of the wall and whose later influences made this building one of the most important of Modernism.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Markus Winninghoff via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Denis Esakov via CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Hans P. Szyszka, image courtesy of © UNESCO-Welterbe Fagus-Werk.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Hans P. Szyszka, image courtesy of © UNESCO-Welterbe Fagus-Werk.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Harald Selke via CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Clemensfranz via CC BY-SA 4.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Markus Winninghoff via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Harald Selke via CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Harald Selke via CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Markus Winninghoff via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Markus Winninghoff via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Markus Winninghoff via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Jürgen Bartels, image courtesy of © UNESCO-Welterbe Fagus-Werk.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Hans P. Szyszka, image courtesy of © UNESCO-Welterbe Fagus-Werk.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Markus Winninghoff via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Denis Esakov via CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Denis Esakov via CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Markus Winninghoff via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by x1klima via CC BY-ND 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Clemensfranz via CC BY-SA 4.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Markus Winninghoff via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Harald Selke via CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Carsten Janssen, image courtesy of © UNESCO-Welterbe Fagus-Werk.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by x1klima via CC BY-ND 2.0.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by x1klima via CC BY-ND 2.0.
Ground floor plan. Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer.
First floor plan. Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer.
Elevation and constructive section. Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer.
Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Edmund Lill via CC BY-SA 3.0.
Model. Fagus Factory by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. Photograph by Markus Winninghoff via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
In 1910, after a series of disagreements with the son of the former CEO of the company he worked for, Carl Benscheidt left his position in the company to found the Fagus company in Alfeld, Germany, also specialized in the production of Wooden lasts for the manufacture of boots and shoes. After buying the land in front of his old company, he hired the German architect Eduard Werner, whom he had met in the course of an old renovation that he developed for the Behrens factory where he worked.
Although Eduard Werner was an architect specializing in factories, Benscheidt was not entirely satisfied with the image that the new building would project abroad. Although Werner continued to develop the Fagus factory project, in 1911 Carl Benscheidt met with Walter Gropius intending to look for alternatives for the exterior image of the factory, since Benscheidt thought that the north elevation of the factory, located across from a railroad track and across from the Behrens factory, should serve as a permanent advertisement for your new factory.
In the conversations between Gropius and Benscheidt, the former made the latter see that Werner's project would not be able to give the factory the image it required to develop the expansion project of the company that he had in mind. In May 2011, Gropius managed to convince Benscheidt after explaining and making him aware of the ideals to which he had dedicated so much time and thoughts and which explained how industrial buildings should develop from now on. As a consequence, Gropius and his collaborator Adolf Meyer were commissioned to develop the exterior of the project, maintaining the Werner plants that were already underway.
The ideology that Gropius developed for his industrial architecture arises from the desire that the exterior design reveals the constructive logic of the building through different artistic solutions, contrary to what happened in industrial architectures such as that projected by his former boss Peter Behrens in the AEG turbine factory, which Gropius accused of lacking authenticity since its exterior design masked its construction elements. Gropius had formally expressed these new ideas in a lecture entitled "Monumental Art and Industrial Construction" that he gave in April 1911 at the Hagen Folkwang Museum:
Although Eduard Werner was an architect specializing in factories, Benscheidt was not entirely satisfied with the image that the new building would project abroad. Although Werner continued to develop the Fagus factory project, in 1911 Carl Benscheidt met with Walter Gropius intending to look for alternatives for the exterior image of the factory, since Benscheidt thought that the north elevation of the factory, located across from a railroad track and across from the Behrens factory, should serve as a permanent advertisement for your new factory.
In the conversations between Gropius and Benscheidt, the former made the latter see that Werner's project would not be able to give the factory the image it required to develop the expansion project of the company that he had in mind. In May 2011, Gropius managed to convince Benscheidt after explaining and making him aware of the ideals to which he had dedicated so much time and thoughts and which explained how industrial buildings should develop from now on. As a consequence, Gropius and his collaborator Adolf Meyer were commissioned to develop the exterior of the project, maintaining the Werner plants that were already underway.
The ideology that Gropius developed for his industrial architecture arises from the desire that the exterior design reveals the constructive logic of the building through different artistic solutions, contrary to what happened in industrial architectures such as that projected by his former boss Peter Behrens in the AEG turbine factory, which Gropius accused of lacking authenticity since its exterior design masked its construction elements. Gropius had formally expressed these new ideas in a lecture entitled "Monumental Art and Industrial Construction" that he gave in April 1911 at the Hagen Folkwang Museum:
"Train stations, department stores and factories demand their own modern expression and can no longer be executed in the style of the previous centuries, without succumbing to empty schematic forms and historical frippery. Precisely determined forms that are devoid of everything arbitrary, clear contrast, well-ordered members, serial rows of similar elements and the unity of form and colour are the basis for the rhythm of modern architectural creation."
Walter Gropius1
The Fagus factory project was Walter Gropius's first project and is considered one of the earliest and most important architectural works of the modern movement of the early part of the 20th century. The building is made up of a large number of buildings with the capacity to house different functions, such as the manufacture and production of lasts, their storage, or the administrative office. Gropius decided to project the exterior of all the buildings following a common aesthetic that is repeated, based on the use of a yellow brick throughout its façade arranged on a linear base of dark brick 40 centimeters high.
Without a doubt, the most significant and remembered exception occurs in the factory office building. In this three-story building with a flat roof, Gropius presents a façade where glass acquires the maximum relevance, occupying practically all of it and relegating brick to the background. The decision to dispense with the usual external load-bearing walls and use a structure of reinforced concrete pillars arranged inside the building managed to free up the façade, as can be seen in its weightless exterior corners that are fully glazed and free of structural elements. In turn, this decision made it possible to improve the conditions inside the factory while the construction techniques of the modern movement were exhibited and externalized as a facade image.
Later, in 1913, expansion works were developed and they were concluded just before the outbreak of the First World War. During the war, minor works such as the creation of the generator room or the very recognizable fireplace continued to be developed. Once the war was over, the expansion work continued with the construction of small buildings such as the gatehouse, in addition, at that time Gropius and Meyer designed the interiors and furniture of the main building with the help of Bauhaus teachers and students. After this, the architects continued to work for a new extension that was never developed and in 1927 Carl Benscheidt informed them that the activities were to be stopped due to financial complications, which marked the abrupt end of the work of Gropius and Meyer in the factory.
In 2011, the Fagus factory was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO due to the influence that this building had on the development of modern and later movement architecture. The way in which the building introduces aspects such as light, air, and clarity into the architecture through the use of materials such as glass and steel can be observed in many of Gropius's later works, highlighting his influence on the Bauhaus building in Dessau and its glass curtain wall.
NOTAS.-
1.- Walter Gropius. «Walter Gropius, 1883-1969: The Promoter of a New Form». Cologne: TASCHEN, 2004, pp. 18.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-
- Lupfer, Gilbert and Sigel, Paul. (2004). "Walter Gropius, 1883-1969: The Promoter of a New Form". Cologne: TASCHEN, pp. 17-22.
- VV.AA. (2009). "The Fagus Factory in Alfeld. Nomination for Inscription on the Unesco World Heritage List". Paris: UNESCO, September 2009.
- Benyamin, Jasmine. (2019) "Walter Gropius and Operative History: An Architectural Palimpsest". Lisboa: Docomomo Journal, Issue 61, March 2019, pp. 18-23.
- Xue, Ju. (2016) "Walter Gropius: The Fagus Factory". Paris: Advances in Engineering Research, Atlantis Press, Volume 72, December 2016, pp. 99-101.
- VV.AA. (2009). "The Fagus Factory in Alfeld. Nomination for Inscription on the Unesco World Heritage List". Paris: UNESCO, September 2009.
- Benyamin, Jasmine. (2019) "Walter Gropius and Operative History: An Architectural Palimpsest". Lisboa: Docomomo Journal, Issue 61, March 2019, pp. 18-23.
- Xue, Ju. (2016) "Walter Gropius: The Fagus Factory". Paris: Advances in Engineering Research, Atlantis Press, Volume 72, December 2016, pp. 99-101.
More information
Architects
Walter Gropius, Adolf Meyer.
Client
Carl Benscheidt.
Dates
1911-1925.
Location
Alfeld an der Leine, Lower Saxony, Germany.
Walter GROPIUS
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was born in Berlin, son and grandson of architects, whose influence led him to study architecture in Munich and Berlin. After completing his studies, he worked in Peter Behrens' practice, to later become independent. Between 1910 and 1915, he worked primarily on the rehabilitation and expansion of Fagus Factory in Alfeld. With its thin metal structures, large glazed surfaces, flat roofs and orthogonal forms, this work was a pioneer of modern architecture.
In addition, Gropius founded the famous Bauhaus School, a design school that taught students to use modern and innovative materials to create buildings, furniture and original and functional objects. He was in charge of it first in Weimar and then in Dessau, from 1919 to 1928.
From 1926, Gropius was intensely devoted to the design of housing blocks, which saw the solution to social and urban problems, inaddition to betting for the racionalization in the construction industry, which would allow to build faster and more economically.
Before the First World War, Gropius was already part of a movement of aesthetic renovation, represented by the Deutscher Werkbund, which aimed to unite art with industrial design.
After the war, Gropius, in his role as director of the Sächsischen Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) and Sächsischen Hochschule für bildene Kunst (Superior School of Fine Arts), decides to merge the two schools under the name of "Staatliches Bauhaus "combining their academic goals and adding an architecture section. The building constructed for the school itself is a symbol of the most representative ideas of the Bauhaus: "form follows function".
In 1934 Gropius was forced to leave Germany due to the Nazi agressions suffered by the Bauhaus and his own work. He lived and worked for three years in England moving to America later, where he was professor of architecture at the Harvard Design School. In 1946 The Architects Collaborative, Inc., a group of young architects known as TAC, of which he was responsible of the direction and trainig of the memebers for several years.
Walter Gropius died in Boston in 1969, at the age of 86 years old. His buildings reflect the style of the Bauhaus, with new materials used in their construction and giving them a modern look, unknown at that time. Smooth facades and clear lines, lack of unnecessary decorative elements. This architecture has made of him one of the key leaders of the so-called 'International Style' in architecture.
In addition, Gropius founded the famous Bauhaus School, a design school that taught students to use modern and innovative materials to create buildings, furniture and original and functional objects. He was in charge of it first in Weimar and then in Dessau, from 1919 to 1928.
From 1926, Gropius was intensely devoted to the design of housing blocks, which saw the solution to social and urban problems, inaddition to betting for the racionalization in the construction industry, which would allow to build faster and more economically.
Before the First World War, Gropius was already part of a movement of aesthetic renovation, represented by the Deutscher Werkbund, which aimed to unite art with industrial design.
After the war, Gropius, in his role as director of the Sächsischen Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) and Sächsischen Hochschule für bildene Kunst (Superior School of Fine Arts), decides to merge the two schools under the name of "Staatliches Bauhaus "combining their academic goals and adding an architecture section. The building constructed for the school itself is a symbol of the most representative ideas of the Bauhaus: "form follows function".
In 1934 Gropius was forced to leave Germany due to the Nazi agressions suffered by the Bauhaus and his own work. He lived and worked for three years in England moving to America later, where he was professor of architecture at the Harvard Design School. In 1946 The Architects Collaborative, Inc., a group of young architects known as TAC, of which he was responsible of the direction and trainig of the memebers for several years.
Walter Gropius died in Boston in 1969, at the age of 86 years old. His buildings reflect the style of the Bauhaus, with new materials used in their construction and giving them a modern look, unknown at that time. Smooth facades and clear lines, lack of unnecessary decorative elements. This architecture has made of him one of the key leaders of the so-called 'International Style' in architecture.
Adolf MEYER
Adolf Meyer (Mechernich, June 17, 1881 - Baltrum, July 14, 1929) was a German architect. A student and employee of Peter Behrens, Meyer became the office manager of Walter Gropius's office around 1915. This collaboration, which lasted until 1914, resulted in several important 20th-century buildings, such as the Fagus Factory in Alfeld. and the office building and factory for the Deutscher Werkbund (German Federation of Labor) exhibition in Cologne in 1914. When the Gropius office closed, Meyer became the office manager of the steel construction company Breest & Co. in Berlin
In 1919, Walter Gropius brought Adolf Meyer to the Bauhaus in Weimar as an assistant to the architecture department. Here, he ran Gropius' private architecture office and taught technical drawing and construction from 1920 to 1925. In 1924, he was responsible for the compilation and typographic development of the book "A Prototype House", published by the Bauhaus Weimar as the third volume of the Bauhaus Book series.
After the closure of the Bauhaus Weimar on April 1, 1925, Meyer stayed in Weimar as a freelance architect. In 1926, he was represented at the Neue Baukunst exhibition held by the Kunstverein Jena. He also designed several buildings. These include the Gildehall housing estate in Neuruppin in 1925-1926 and the Zeiss Planetarium in Jena in 1925.
On the recommendation of Walter Gropius, Meyer was appointed to the Frankfurt am Main Public Works Board in 1926 and was head of construction consulting in his construction department. At the same time, he was head of structural engineering at the Frankfurter Kunstschule. During his tenure, the city built the coker plant in Gaswerk Ost in 1927 and the Prüfamt office in 1929, as well as the workshops, depot and warehouse for municipal electrical works.
In 1919, Walter Gropius brought Adolf Meyer to the Bauhaus in Weimar as an assistant to the architecture department. Here, he ran Gropius' private architecture office and taught technical drawing and construction from 1920 to 1925. In 1924, he was responsible for the compilation and typographic development of the book "A Prototype House", published by the Bauhaus Weimar as the third volume of the Bauhaus Book series.
After the closure of the Bauhaus Weimar on April 1, 1925, Meyer stayed in Weimar as a freelance architect. In 1926, he was represented at the Neue Baukunst exhibition held by the Kunstverein Jena. He also designed several buildings. These include the Gildehall housing estate in Neuruppin in 1925-1926 and the Zeiss Planetarium in Jena in 1925.
On the recommendation of Walter Gropius, Meyer was appointed to the Frankfurt am Main Public Works Board in 1926 and was head of construction consulting in his construction department. At the same time, he was head of structural engineering at the Frankfurter Kunstschule. During his tenure, the city built the coker plant in Gaswerk Ost in 1927 and the Prüfamt office in 1929, as well as the workshops, depot and warehouse for municipal electrical works.
Categories
Our selection
