Presentation on the works of Peter behrens werkbund

1. Deutscher Werkbund

2. DEUTSCHER WERKBUND (German
Work Federation)
• It consisted of - Artists+ Architects + Designers+
Industrialist
• It was from 1898 – 1927
• Partnership of manufacture with designers to
improve competitiveness of German companies in
Global market of US & England
• Less of an art movement
• Hermann Muthesius – went to England for four years
to study wrote the book – “English House” which
focused on mass production in England.

3. • 1876 – Philadelphia centennial exhibition of 1876,
where the German products were considered inferior
to US & UK .It was cheap & nasty
• Germans wanted to improve design in both craft and
industry to create a high quality
• Artist people – machine production
• 1896 – Hermann sent to London
• 1904 – reform education in applied arts
• The English House – craftsmanship and economy as
basis of good design
• Peter Behrens – Architect during Werbund

4. Principles
• Split between Norma & Form
• Type & Individuality
• Deutsche Werkbund exhibition in cologne (1914)
• Hernab Muthesius – Need for refining typical
objects
• Progress in architecture & Industrail design by
development & refinement of Types
• Products of high standards
• Big firms with impeccable taste – mass
production.

5. Peter BEHRENS
(1868 - 1940)

6. Peter Behrens
• Self made Architect,Painter, Illustrator
• 1899 – Duke Ernst Ludwig – DARMSTADT ART COLONY
• Behren’s House (1901)
– Brick & Stucco façade & wood Interior
– Secession Style
• Major Builder of factory & offices
• 1903- Director of KUMSTGEWERBERSCHULE,
Dusseldorf
• 1907 – Major Architect in German Werkbund
• Architect and designer for AEG

7. Peter Behrens
• Architectural Ideology : “Will To Form”
• Tarsnformed from a vision to revitalize
German culture through ART to accept the
nature of Industrialization as future of
Germany – Industry is a vital rhythm of
modern life
• Duty of artist to give form.

8. Earlier works in Darmstadt Artists’
Colony along with Joseph Maria
Olbrich – Works were more Artistic
and considered in the lines of TOTAL
WORK OF ART

9. BEHRENS HOUSE
Darmstadt, Germany
(1901)

15. Later works as a Werkbund –
Industrial Designer– Works were
more integration of innovative
ideas in a more functional designs

16. AEG TURBINE FACTORY,
Berlin, Germany
(1909)

17. AEG Turbine Factory, berlin (1909)
• Faceted gable – statuesque of a farmyard
• Street façade – Light steel frame – corner made
of solid elements
• Behrens design for factory in general follows this
style of light steel frames with massive corners.
• Monumental Art – art as a expression of the
dominated power group in any given Epoch
• WILL TO FORM - Force destined to oppose the
specified technical propensities of an EPOCH