The Beginning of Modernity_Queenning Zhao_Expressionist Architecture

Expressionist architecture

Expressionist architecture describes a type of architecture which uses the form of a building as a means to evoke or express the inner sensitivities and feelings of the viewer or the architect. 

Some of the qualities of the original movement were; utopianism, distortion, fragmentation or the communication of violent or overstressed emotion. In other words, it is a kind of abstraction in architecture.

This style was characterised by an early-modernist adoption of novel materials, formal innovation, and very unusual massing, sometimes inspired by natural biomorphic forms, sometimes by the new technical possibilities offered by the mass production of brick, steel and specially glass.  A recurring concern of expressionist architects was the use of materials and how they might be poetically expressed. Often, the intention was to unify the materials in a building so as to make it monolithic. 

Expressionist architects were both involved in film and inspired by it. Many architects designed theatres for performances on the stage and film sets for expressionist films. These were defining moments for the movement, and with its interest in theatres and films, the performing arts held a significant place in expressionist architecture. Like film, and theatre, expressionist architecture created an unusual and exotic environment to surround the visitor.

In my opinion, expressionist architecture are more like sculptures and pieces of artworks. They give more space for personal interpretation and perception for architectural understandings. It is as if the relation between people and architecture becomes more flexible, and leaves more space for imagination. It took architecture into a new level, a spiritual one, where perhaps form didn't necessarily have to follow function. 

The Second Goetheanum, built from 1924-28, was designed by Rudolf Steiner to replace the first Goetheanum that was destroyed by arson. The Second Goetheanum, was wholly built of cast concrete. It represents a pioneering use of visible concrete in architecture. This building has been called as a "true masterpiece of 20th-century expressionist architecture" by art critic Michael Brennan.

Steiner's architecture is characterized by a liberation from traditional architectural constraints. For the second Goetheanum he used concrete to achieve sculptural shapes on an architectural scale. The use of concrete to achieve organically expressive forms was an innovation for the times; in both buildings, Steiner sought to create forms that were spiritually expressive.