DOI Heft:
No. 58 (December, 1901)
DOI Artikel:Fred, Alfred W.: The work of Prof. J. M. Olbrich at the Darmstadt Artists' Colony
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22772#0128
Professor J. M. Olbrich
Haus Deiters), erected and arranged by him, furnish
evidence that he is well able to provide for the
artistic needs of ordinary men. Herein lies, in
my opinion, a good deal of the importance of the
Darmstadt Artists’ Colony, which by exhibiting
these houses has furnished the fullest proof that
the so-called modern art handicraft is fit for ordinary
men and women, that its principle and its aim are
not merely extravagance and peculiarity, but the
discovery of new forms, more in accordance with
the life of our time, the changed conditions of
life, than the bad copies and variations of his-
torical furniture with which we have been in the
habit of surrounding ourselves.
Deiters’ is a small house, erected at a low cost,
and is chiefly noteworthy for the way in which
the ground-plan problem has been solved. By
avoiding every gangway or corridor, every dead
angle in the whole house, the rooms, notwithstand-
ing the small area, have become large. Even the
ante-room has been made into a living-room by
brown-tinted furniture, built into the walls. The
living-room, placed in the outermost left wing,
receives its light through a window of three bays,
placed obliquely across two fronts, and by this
arrangement has been formed into a large interior,
in which green furniture, embellished by plain
tarsia-work, lightly but broadly designed, produces
a very good effect. The dining-room is quite
bright, and furnished with natural, unstained,
polished wood. Adjoining is a small smoking-
room. The first floor contains bedrooms, and the
basement, as in other houses, kitchen, bathroom,
and laundry.
It would lead us too far to deal in detail with
the rooms in Gliickert’s house. The direction of
Olbrich’s artistic peculiarity is probably fully
demonstrated. A few words, however, should be
added regarding the piano, because it is a model of
entirely novel construction. In the first place, it
does not stand upon the conventional, uncouth,
screwed-on feet, which always convey the impression
that they will break down the very next moment
under the weight they are supporting. Here the
idea is very well carried out that, in constructing a
piece of furniture, due regard should not only be
paid to a physical law, whether the piece will be
able to stand, but also that it is necessary that a
DINING-ROOM IN PROFESSOR OLBRICH'S HOUSE
DESIGNED BY J. M. OLBRICH
Haus Deiters), erected and arranged by him, furnish
evidence that he is well able to provide for the
artistic needs of ordinary men. Herein lies, in
my opinion, a good deal of the importance of the
Darmstadt Artists’ Colony, which by exhibiting
these houses has furnished the fullest proof that
the so-called modern art handicraft is fit for ordinary
men and women, that its principle and its aim are
not merely extravagance and peculiarity, but the
discovery of new forms, more in accordance with
the life of our time, the changed conditions of
life, than the bad copies and variations of his-
torical furniture with which we have been in the
habit of surrounding ourselves.
Deiters’ is a small house, erected at a low cost,
and is chiefly noteworthy for the way in which
the ground-plan problem has been solved. By
avoiding every gangway or corridor, every dead
angle in the whole house, the rooms, notwithstand-
ing the small area, have become large. Even the
ante-room has been made into a living-room by
brown-tinted furniture, built into the walls. The
living-room, placed in the outermost left wing,
receives its light through a window of three bays,
placed obliquely across two fronts, and by this
arrangement has been formed into a large interior,
in which green furniture, embellished by plain
tarsia-work, lightly but broadly designed, produces
a very good effect. The dining-room is quite
bright, and furnished with natural, unstained,
polished wood. Adjoining is a small smoking-
room. The first floor contains bedrooms, and the
basement, as in other houses, kitchen, bathroom,
and laundry.
It would lead us too far to deal in detail with
the rooms in Gliickert’s house. The direction of
Olbrich’s artistic peculiarity is probably fully
demonstrated. A few words, however, should be
added regarding the piano, because it is a model of
entirely novel construction. In the first place, it
does not stand upon the conventional, uncouth,
screwed-on feet, which always convey the impression
that they will break down the very next moment
under the weight they are supporting. Here the
idea is very well carried out that, in constructing a
piece of furniture, due regard should not only be
paid to a physical law, whether the piece will be
able to stand, but also that it is necessary that a
DINING-ROOM IN PROFESSOR OLBRICH'S HOUSE
DESIGNED BY J. M. OLBRICH