Seminar Report

Peter Behrens

INTRODUCTION

Peter Behrens is one of the most influential 20th-century German designers. At the beginning of the century, he brought forth outstanding works in painting, architecture, graphic design and industrial design, which exerted a huge influence in all these various fields for the generations to come. He is viewed as the founder of modern objective industrial architecture and modern industrial design

EARLY LIFE

Born in Hamburg in 1868, Peter Behrens studied at the Hamburg Kunstgewerbeschule [School for the Applied Arts] from 1886 to 1889 before attending the Kunstschule in Karlsruhe and the Düsseldorf Art Academy.

 At first, he worked as a painter, illustrator and book-binder sort of like a craftsperson. 

He frequented the bohemian circles (the practice of an unconventional lifestyle), the artistic circles of Munich (Jugendstil: a philosophy of design of furniture, which was designed according

Peter Behrens

to the whole building and made part of ordinary life) and was interested in subjects related to the reform of life-styles. 

HAUS BEHRENS

In 1899 Peter Behrens was appointed by Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt to the Mathildenhöhe artists' colony the Grand Duke had just established in Darmstadt. There Behrens designed and built his first house, his own dwelling. Designed as a total work of art, "Haus Behrens" caused quite a stir; Behrens himself designed the architecture and the interior with all its appointments and furnishings down to the last detail.

 The building of this house is considered to be the turning point in his life, when he moved away from Art Nouveau towards a sober and austere style of design.

The house is organized about a dining and music room on the raised ground floor, with a kitchen and additional services in the basement, and the main bedrooms and studio space above.

While this format was quite typical for a small bourgeois' house, its internal and external expression was unusual, particularly for its combination of features drawn from the English Arts and Crafts movement...with elements such as the high-pitched roof drawn from the German vernacular

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

Peter Behrens

Peter Behrens

EARLY PROJECTS: TURBINENHALLE

In 1908-09 Behrens designed the AEG Turbinenhalle in Berlin, a concrete, steel and glass factory building with an outspoken agenda.

In addition to architecture (housing for working men and their families), Behrens also designed household electrical appliances, standardizing the forms of their components and thus making them interchangeable, which rationalized production.

Peter Behrens

CONTRIBUTIONS IN MODERN ARCHITECTURE

 He was important for the modernist movement and several of the movement's leading names in earlier stages of their careers.

1907, saw Peter Behrens founding a large architectural and design practice in Berlin. Walter Gropius (up to 1910), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1908-11), and Le Corbusier (1910-11) also worked there.

This joint studio was very productive and numerous architectural commissions were realized, including the German embassy in St. Petersburg (1911-12) and the IG Farben Höchst headquarters in Frankfurt (1920-25), which showed the influence of Expressionism.

In 1926 Peter Behrens designed "New Ways", a private dwelling in Northampton, which is regarded as an early example of the International Modern style.

One of his last commissions, in 1938, was to plan new AEG headquarters in Berlin.

AEG Turbinenhalle in Berlin (1908-09)

Peter Behrens

CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE DESIGN INDUSTRY

In 1897 Behrens joined forces with other designers in Munich to produce handmade utilitarian objects. In 1898 Peter Behrens collaborated on designing the Berlin journal "Pan" and produced his first furniture designs.

In 1906 Peter Behrens received his first commission from AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft) to design advertising material and was hired as an artistic consultant to work on a wide range of projects. He was in charge of designing sales rooms, catalogues, price lists, etc, thus using design for the first time to create a unified appearance as the sign of corporate identity. This collaboration lasted until 1914.

In October 1907 Peter Behrens joined several artists to found the Deutscher Werkbund, inspired by the British Arts and Crafts movement.-to promote crafts skills while leading into industrial production which would be regarded of the same quality as hand made goods

Peter Behrens has designed china, glass objects and patterned linoleum flooring for various companies.

German embassy in St. Petersburg (1911-12)

Peter Behrens

LATER LIFE: TEACHING CAREER

In 1901-02 Peter Behrens taught at the Düsseldorf Kunstgewerbeschule. In 1903 he left Mathildenhöhe, serving until 1907 as the director of the Düsseldorf Kunstgewerbeschule.

Peter also continued to teach, heading the architecture department of the Vienna Akademie der Bildenden Künste from 1922 to 1936.

For the rest of his life he was head of the architecture department at the Preußische Akademie der Künste in Berlin.

Peter Behrens

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.artnet.com/artists/peter-behrens/biography-links http://www.e-architect.co.uk/berlin/turbine_building.htm http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathalle/538225674/ http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Behrens_House.html http://www.berlin.de/orte/sehenswuerdigkeiten/aeg-turbinenhalle/ http://www.behrens-peter.com/ http://www.peterbehrens.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Behrens