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Erich Mendelsohn

1887-1953
Grandfather of modernist
architecture
a man of genius must constantly
renew himself otherwise
he is ossified

Biography
1887
Born in Allenstein, East Prussia
1908 1912 Studies architecture in Berlin and
Munich
1917
Works for red cross in Russian front
1918
Opens his own architectural office in Berlin
1933
Emigrates to England
1935
Founds architectural office in Jerusalem
1941 Emigrates to the United States
1953 Dies in San Francisco

Expressionistic ideas
*Mendelsohn used no historical precedents in
formulating his designs. As a result, his early
buildings avoid the eclectic borrowing that mark
so many of his contemporaries.
*His architectural ideas were derived from
expressionistic sketches and romantic symbolism
which recognized that the qualities of modern
building materials should dictate a new
architecture.
* In later designs, Mendehlson moved away from his
earlier expressionist architecture, designing a
series of buildings in a more linear fashion.

Mendelsohn after returning to Berlin,


opened an architect's office and his
first exhibition, "Architecture in Steel
and Concrete." He designed stage
sets, costumes, and window displays.
He came to be known as
pioneer of steel architecture.

As early as 1923 he formulated his


thesis: "The primary element is
function. But function without a
sensual component remains
construction. The postulate is
functional dynamics."

Mendelsohn developed his new ideas


by studying and precisely analyzing
local conditions.
Mendelsohn entered and won a
competition for the De La Warr Pavilion
at Bexhill-on-Sea. This was the first
major welded steel-framed building in
Britain and thus a landmark of modern
architecture.

The American Years


Mendelsohn arrived in the United States in 1944.
He supported himself with a Guggenheim grant, by
lecturing extensively, and by advising the War
Department on how best to destroy buildings
similar to those he himself had constructed.
He befriended Frank Lloyd Wright,
William Wurster, and
Lewis Mumford.

He may have belonged nowhere, but in


each place to which fate drove him, he
knew how to adapt and exhibit great
personal and professional resilience.

Some of his works:


1.Einstien tower
2.Shocken department store
3.Villa weizmann
4. Hadassah hospital
5. Mossehaus, Berlin Germany
6.Rudolf department store

1.Einstein tower

Einstein tower
Location: near Potsdam, Germany
Date
: 1919 to 1921
Building Type: laboratory, observatory
Construction System: bearing masonry,
concrete over
brick
Climate: temperate
Context: suburban
Style:
Expressionist Early Modern
Notes: Curvaceous, streamlined form

Einstein tower
The Einstein Tower, a daring piece of
architecture, part of which is
underground, was finished in Potsdam
near Berlin in 1924.
A kind of concrete sculpture, it is still
standing and is a place of pilgrimage
for visiting architects.
it is a design for a very unusual tower
which was to prove Einstein's theory of
relativity by measuring the sun's
spectral lines .

2. Shocken department store

Shocken department store


Location: Stuttgart,Germany
Date : 1926
Building Type: commercial retail
Construction System : concrete, brick
Climate:
temperate
Context : urbanStyleModern
Notes:
site-determined irregular plan.
exemplary development of building
corner

Shocken department store


Schocken department store is a
reinforced concrete building with
continuous window bands alternating
with limestone bands, a fully glazed
ground floor, escalators and air
conditioning.

3.Villa weizmann

Villa weizmann
Villa Weizmann, 1934-36, in
Rehovot, Israel.
A semicircular staircase is
the central motif in the round
tower, one story higher than
the house.
all windows face the green
countryside panorama.
garden and the indoor
decorative pool designed by
him.

4.Hadsaah hospital

Hadsaah hospital
'The view is eternal. Whoever dies here
will not have far to travel.'
Mendelsohn designed a large dome on
one of the buildings to adapt it with
native style.

5.Mossehaus Berlin Germany

Mossehaus, Berlin-Germany
The corner of the original building (by
Cremer & Wolffenstein) was damaged
in the First World War.
Mendelsohn, responsible for a number of
streamlined buildings in Berlin in the
1920s, was commissioned to
reconstruct and enlarge the building.
Mendelsohn grafted a new corner and
top onto the existing, conventional
structure.

7.Rudolf department store

Some other works

Columbus building

volsbank
Hat factory

He has been easily forgotten as he


founded no school, there was no
institutionalized follow-up to his ideas,
and his achievements have been too
often ignored.
Mendelsohn was a master of place and
identity. And yet, the man who left an
architectural legacy in seven countries
and possessed three citizenships,
spent his life in perpetual, self-imposed
il

THANK YOU

Submitted by:

PRASENJIT MAULIK

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