DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45213#0189
Architectural form and colour design
189
Here comes a new style of building, very restrained in its architectural form.
Rudolf Delius382
The WUWA model housing estate, although generally associated with the 1920's Functionalism
and its reliance on simple, geometrical forms, in fact presented a more complex phenomenon. Func-
tionalism was not a uniform or homogeneous style. The architects involved in the WUWA model
estate considered it their primary duty to see that a building functioned well but their creations re-
ferred, oftentimes simultaneously, to various ideas: the principles of functional design based on sim-
plified geometrical forms and divisions, unrelieved volumetric shapes and horizontal emphasis of
the International Style; the more sculptural "organic" architecture; some had predilection for white
plastering, others favoured the expressionist idea of "colourful city" (Die Farbige Stadt).
Functionalism is often exclusively identified with the so called International Style and its white
geometrical volumes, with the architectural visions of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe or Wal-
ter Gropius. For some time, however, the multifarious character of Functionalism was increasingly
recognised (for example, by Ernest Niemczyk, Jadwiga Slawinska or Peter Blundel Jones). For the
Functionalists the form, stripped of any superfluous decoration, was to satisfy the inhabitants' needs
on the one hand and to reflect modern construction methods. On the other, the orthodox Func-
tionalists emphasised the measurable, scientific and utilitarian aspects, scorning any decorative ele-
ments. Their approach to the designing process was highly structured. Projected needs of future
inhabitants were studied in order to determine the basic functions of the living space. The next step
involved developing a simple, optimal layout which was subsequently elaborated on ("solved") in
three dimensions. The process of solving the plan in space would produce truly functional architec-
tural work.
382 Rudolf DELIUS, op.c/t., p.273.
189
Here comes a new style of building, very restrained in its architectural form.
Rudolf Delius382
The WUWA model housing estate, although generally associated with the 1920's Functionalism
and its reliance on simple, geometrical forms, in fact presented a more complex phenomenon. Func-
tionalism was not a uniform or homogeneous style. The architects involved in the WUWA model
estate considered it their primary duty to see that a building functioned well but their creations re-
ferred, oftentimes simultaneously, to various ideas: the principles of functional design based on sim-
plified geometrical forms and divisions, unrelieved volumetric shapes and horizontal emphasis of
the International Style; the more sculptural "organic" architecture; some had predilection for white
plastering, others favoured the expressionist idea of "colourful city" (Die Farbige Stadt).
Functionalism is often exclusively identified with the so called International Style and its white
geometrical volumes, with the architectural visions of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe or Wal-
ter Gropius. For some time, however, the multifarious character of Functionalism was increasingly
recognised (for example, by Ernest Niemczyk, Jadwiga Slawinska or Peter Blundel Jones). For the
Functionalists the form, stripped of any superfluous decoration, was to satisfy the inhabitants' needs
on the one hand and to reflect modern construction methods. On the other, the orthodox Func-
tionalists emphasised the measurable, scientific and utilitarian aspects, scorning any decorative ele-
ments. Their approach to the designing process was highly structured. Projected needs of future
inhabitants were studied in order to determine the basic functions of the living space. The next step
involved developing a simple, optimal layout which was subsequently elaborated on ("solved") in
three dimensions. The process of solving the plan in space would produce truly functional architec-
tural work.
382 Rudolf DELIUS, op.c/t., p.273.