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Hans Scharoun
Peter Blundell Jones
Reviewed by Lester Korzilius
Published in Oculus, March 1996; Kebyar Network News, March/April 1996
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Hans Scharoun (1893-1972) was the architect of the Berlin
Philharmonic Hall, one of the most significant works of architecture
in this century. This excellent book by the accomplished critic Peter Blundell
Jones analyzes Scharoun's entire career, spanning private homes, apartment
buildings, urban planning, schools, museums, and theaters. The book provides
illustrations of most projects both built and unbuilt, and is coupled with
well-researched analysis and cogent criticism.
If for Mies van der Rohe God was in the details, then for Scharoun God was in the idea of the building. Scharoun's primary interest was in internal space, and the procession through this space. Unlike Mies' concept of universal space, Scharoun created spaces with intense specificity. For example, a project for a school in Darmstadt has three distinct types of classrooms corresponding to age group. Each has different degrees of openness, lighting, and color. Scharoun is best known for his masterwork, the Berlin Philharmonic Hall (1956-1963). In a hall that seats 2200 people, a series of cascading sloped terraces envelope the musicians. Unlike other concert halls with tiers of balconies, every seat in Berlin can be reached from the stage. Scharoun's concept was to have music as the focal point, with no segregation of musicians and audience, with man, music, and space coming together in a new relation-ship enabling a direct and co-creative share in the production of music. The space is breathtaking. Equally impressive are the Piranesian public foyer spaces. Stairs, bridges and platforms fly in all directions, but with a subtlety and control that defies the hand of a master. Like many of Scharoun's buildings, the shortcoming of the Philharmonic Hall is in the exterior composition. Scharoun seems to have felt that the internal generating ideas of a building would be sufficient, in themselves, to ensure a total, complete, and integrated work of architecture. Other notable Scharoun buildings covered in the book include the State Library in Berlin, the Musical Instruments Museum in Berlin, the Wolfsburg theater, and the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven. Many unbuilt projects are shown, and these are particularly valuable in demonstrating the evolution of ideas that appeared in the constructed buildings. Peter Blundell Jones is an accomplished English critic whom many will recognize from his writings in the Architectural Review. This is his second book on Scharoun, the first published in 1980 and written only in German. |
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