20TH CENTURY THEORY

3. ERICH MENDELSOHN

EXPRESSIONIST
ARCHITECT

TOA-2
6 B TOSA
BY AR.NIDHI JOSHI
 INTRODUCTION

BORN 21 March 1887

Allenstein, Prussia
DIED 15 September 1953(aged66)
San Francisco, California, United
States
NATIONALI German-British-American
TY
OCCUPATIO Architect
N
BUILDINGS Einstein Tower, Potsdam
De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on
Sea
Petersdorff department store,
Breslau
Erich Mendelsohn
Weizmann (21 March 1887
residence, 15 September 1953) was a Jewish
Tel Aviv
German Hebrew
PROJECTS architect, knownof
University for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s,
Jerusalem
as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for
department stores and cinemas.

Mendelsohn is a pioneer of the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne

architecture, notably with his 1921 Mossehaus design.

He became famous for his use of modern materials and construction

methods to make what he saw as organically unified buildings.
 FYI: EXPRESSIONIST ARCHITECTURE
Expressionist architecture was an
architectural movement that
developed in Europe during the
first decades of the 20th century in
parallel with the expressionist
visual and performing arts that
especially developed and
dominated in Germany.
The Sydney Opera House in Einstein Tower in Potsdam
Sydney, Australia is one of the near Berlin, 1919-22 (Erich
The term "Expressionist most iconic buildings in the world Mendelsohn)
architecture" initially described the and one of the most recognisable
activity of the German, Dutch, examples of Expressionist
architecture
Austrian, Czech and Danish avant
garde from 1910 until 1930.
Subsequent redefinitions extended
the term backwards to 1905 and
also widened it to encompass the
rest of Europe. Today the meaning
has broadened even further to
refer to architecture of any date or
location that exhibits some of the
Jewish Museum in Berlin, Antonio Gaudi-Casa Batllo
qualities of the original movement 1989-99 (Daniel Libeskind)
such as; distortion, fragmentation
or the communication of violent or
overstressed emotion
The style was characterized by an
early-modernist adoption of novel
materials, formal innovation, and
very unusual massing, sometimes Yoyogi National Gymnasium Auditorio de Tenerife,
inspired by natural biomorphic in Tokyo, 1964 (Kenzo Canary Islands, 2003
 FYI: EXPRESSIONIST ARCHITECTURE
Many expressionist architects
fought in World War I and
their experiences, combined
with the political turmoil and
social upheaval that followed
the German Revolution of
1919, resulted in a utopian
outlook and a romantic
socialist agenda.

Economic conditions severely

limited the number of built Glass Pavilion at the Cologne 1824, Caspar David Friedrich's Das
commissions between 1914 Deutscher Werkbund Exhibition, Eismeer (The Sea of Ice)
and the mid-1920s, resulting 1914 (Bruno Taut)
in many of the most important
expressionist works remaining
as projects on paper, such as
Bruno Taut's Alpine
Architecture and Hermann
Finsterlin's Formspiels.

1921, Walter Gropius's Monument JFK International Airport in New

Ephemeral exhibition to the March Dead York, TWA Terminal, 1956-62 (Eero
buildings were numerous and Saarinen)
highly significant during this
period. Scenography for
theatre and films provided
another outlet for the
expressionist imagination, and
provided supplemental Lotus Temple, 1986 (Fariborz Sahba)
incomes for designers
 FYI: EXPRESSIONIST ARCHITECTURE

CHARACTERISTICS
Expressionist architecture was individualistic and in many ways avoided aesthetic
dogma, but it is still useful to develop some criteria which defines it. Though
containing a great variety and differentiation, many points can be found as
recurring in works of Expressionist architecture, and are evident in some degree in
each of its works.

Distortion of form for an emotional effect

Subordination of realism to symbolic or stylistic expression of inner experience.
An underlying effort at achieving the new, original, and visionary.
Profusion of works on paper, and models, with discovery and representations of
concepts more important than pragmatic finished products.
Often hybrid solutions, irreducible to a single concept.
Themes of natural romantic phenomena, such as caves, mountains, lightning,
crystal and rock formations.As such it is more mineral and elemental than florid
and organic which characterized its close contemporary art nouveau.
Uses creative potential of artisan craftsmanship.
Tendency more towards the gothic than the classical. Expressionist architecture
also tends more towards the Romanesque and the rococo than the classical.
Though a movement in Europe, expressionism is as eastern as western. It draws as
much from Moorish, Islamic, Egyptian, and Indian art and architecture as from
Roman or Greek.
Conception of architecture as a work of art.
 FYI: ART DECO
Art Deco is an elegant style of decorative art,
design and architecture which began as a
Modernist reaction against theArt Nouveaustyle
Art Deco is an influential visual arts design style
that first appeared in France just before World War
I and began flourishing internationally in the 1920s,
1930s and 1940s before its popularity waned after
World War II.
It took its name, short for Arts Dcoratifs, from the
Exposition Internationale des Arts Dcoratifs et
Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of
Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in Paris
in 1925.
It is an eclectic style that combines traditional
craft motifs with Machine Age imagery and
materials.
The style is often characterized by rich colours,
bold geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation.
Deco emerged from the interwar period when rapid
industrialization was transforming culture.
One of its major attributes is an embrace of
technology. This distinguishes Deco from the
organic motifs favoured by its predecessor Art
Nouveau.
The Chrysler Building in Manhattan is a
Historian Bevis Hillier defined Art Deco as "an classic example of Art Deco architecture,
and features a number of these design
assertively modern style that ran to symmetry elements.
rather than asymmetry, and to the rectilinear
rather than the curvilinear; it responded to the
 FYI: ART DECO
The style was essentially one of applied decoration.
Buildings were richly embellished with hard-edged,
low-relief designs: geometric shapes, including
chevrons and ziggurats; and stylized floral and
sunrise patterns.
Although some buildings utilized expensive hand-
crafted decoration, others made do with machine-
made repetitive decorations.
To keep costs down, ornamental treatment was
often limited to the most visible parts of the
building.
Art Deco projects produced dynamic collaborations
between architects, painters, sculptors, and
designerssometimes resulting in complete Art
Deco environments like Old Miami Beach, Florida.
Art Deco was first applied to public and commercial
buildings in the 1920s.
In classic Art Deco, rectangular blocky forms were
often arranged in geometric fashion, then broken
up by curved ornamental elements. But always the
aim was a monolithic appearance with applied
decorative motifs.
Art Deco materials included stucco, concrete, Buffalo City Hall, Buffalo, New York,
smooth-faced stone, and Terracotta. Steel and Dietel, Wade & Jones, 1931.
aluminum were often used along with glass blocks
and decorative opaque plate glass
Art Deco designers adorned flat roofs with
parapets, spires, or tower-like constructs to
 FYI: STREAMLINE MODERNE
Streamline Moderne, or Art Moderne, is a
late type of the Art Deco architecture and
design that emerged in the 1930s. Its
architectural style emphasized curving
forms, long horizontal lines, and
sometimes nautical elements.
As the Great Depression of the 1930s
progressed, Americans saw a new aspect
of Art Decoi.e., streamlining, a concept
first conceived by industrial designers
who stripped Art Deco design of its
ornament in favor of the aerodynamic
pure-line concept of motion and speed
developed from scientific thinking. The Normandie Hotel, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was
inspired by the ocean liner SS Normandie and displays the
Cylindrical forms and long horizontal ship's original sign
windowing also may be influenced by
constructivism. As a result, an array of
designers quickly ultra-modernized and
streamlined the designs of everyday
objects. Manufacturers of clocks, radios,
telephones, cars, furniture, and many
other household appliances embraced
the concept.

The style was the first to incorporate

electric light into architectural structure.
In the first-class dining room of the SS Greyhound bus terminal, Cleveland, Ohio
Normandie, fitted out 193335, twelve
tall pillars of Lalique glass, and 38
columns lit from within illuminated the
 FYI: STREAMLINE MODERNE
The Streamline Moderne was both a
reaction to Art Deco and a reflection of
austere economic times; Sharp angles
were replaced with simple, aerodynamic
curves. Exotic woods and stone were
replaced with cement and glass.

Art Deco and Streamline Moderne were not

necessarily opposites. Streamline Moderne
buildings with a few Deco elements were
not uncommon but the prime movers
behind streamline design
Common characteristics of Streamline
Moderne and Art Moderne
Horizontal orientation
Rounded edges, corner windows
Glass brick walls
Porthole windows
Chrome hardware
Daily Express Building, Manchester,
Smooth exterior wall surfaces, usually UK, 1939

stucco (smooth plaster finish)

Flat roof with coping
Horizontal grooves or lines in walls
Subdued colors: base colors were typically
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: BIOGRAPHY

1. Erich Mendelsohn was born in Allenstein (Olsztyn), East Prussia, now

Poland in 1887.

2. He was the fifth of six children; his mother was Emma Esther (ne
Jaruslawsky), a hatmaker and his father David was a shopkeeper.

3. He attended a humanist Gymnasium in Allenstein and continued with

commercial training in Berlin.

4. In 1906 he took up the study of national economics at the

University of Munich.

5. In 1908 he began studyingarchitectureat the

Technical University of Berlin; two years later he transferred to the
Technical University of Munich, and graduated in 1912.

6. InMunichhe was influenced byTheodor Fischer, an architect whose

own work fell between neo-classicalandJugendstil, and who had been
teaching there since 1907; Mendelsohn also made contact with
members ofDer Blaue ReiterandDie Brcke, two groups of
expressionist artists.
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: BIOGRAPHY

1. In 1915 he married thecellistLuise Maas. Between 1910 and 1953 they

corresponded with each other; these materials provide insight into the
lives of an artist and couple who experienced a changing international
landscape, including their fleeing from the Third Reich in Germany in
1933.

2. The 2011 documentary film by Duki Dror titled "Incessant Visions" is

about Erich Mendelsohn and his wife, in which Dror animates the
memoirs of Louise and the letters.

3. While serving in the German army duringWorld War I, he made a series

of highly imaginative architectural sketches that attracted widespread
attention when they were exhibited inBerlinshortly after the war. His
designs showed the strong influence of expressionism in their dynamic
and dramatic use of line.

4. Through his wife, he met the cello-playingastrophysicistErwin Finlay

Freundlich. Freundlich was the brother ofHerbert Freundlich, the
deputy director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut fr Physikalische Chemie
und Elektrochemie (now theFritz Haber Instituteof the
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: ARCHITECTURE CAREER

1. Through his relationship with Freundlich, Mendelsohn had the

opportunity to design and build theEinsteinturm("Einstein Tower").

2. From then until 1918, what is known of Mendelsohn is, above all, a
multiplicity of sketches of factories and other large buildings, often in
small format or in letters from the front to his wife, Louise Mendelsohn
(ne Maes) (18951980).

3. At the end of 1918, upon his return fromWorld War I, he settled his
practice in Berlin.

4. Shortly after the Einstein tower Mendelsohn began to turn away from
free-flowing designs. An example of this new direction is his Steinberg
Hat Factory (1920-1923) in Luckenwalde, Germany.

5. The Einsteinturm and the hat factory (1921) in Luckenwalde

established his reputation.

6. As early as 1924Wasmuths Monatshefte fr Baukunst(a series of

monthly magazines on architecture) produced a booklet about his
work.
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: ARCHITECTURE CAREER

8. During the late 1920s he became more and more attracted to the
formal lines of the International Style. At this time he was
commissioned to design several branches of the Shocken Department
Store.

9. In the one at Stuttgart (1926) he emphasized the horizontal by using

continuous-ribbon windows separated with bands of brick. The rounded
staircase at the corner of the asymmetrical structure was cantilevered
over the entrance. Mendelsohn refined this approach in the design for
the Shocken store at Chemnitz (1927-1928). Here, in an imposing
curved facade, the windows alternated with opaque white bands,
creating a feeling of clarity and lightness.

10.He was also interested in the socialist experiments being made in

theUSSR, where he designed theRed Banner Textile Factoryin 1926
(together with the senior architect of this project,Hyppolit Pretreaus).

11.HisMossehausnewspaper offices and Universum cinema were also

highly influential on art deco andStreamline Moderne.

12.In 1926, he bought an old villa, and in 1928, he designed Rupenhorn,

nearly 4000m, which the family occupied two years later. With an
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: ARCHITECTURE CAREER

13.In the spring of 1933, in the wake of growingantisemitismand the rise

of the Nazis in Germany, he fled first to Brussels and then to England.

14. His fortune was seized by theNazis, his name struck from the list of
the German Architects' Union, and he was excluded from the
Prussian Academy of Arts

15.In England he began a business partnership withSerge Chermayeff,

which continued until the end of 1938. Mendelsohn divided his practice
between England and Palestine.

16.His most important work inEnglandwas theDe La Warr Pavilion,

Bexhill(with Serge Chermayeff, 1933), which had a glass-enclosed,
semicircular stairway tower.

17. Mendelsohn had long knownChaim Weizmann, laterPresident of Israel

. At the start of 1934 he began planning on Weizmann's behalf a series
of projects inPalestineduring the British Mandate.
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: ARCHITECTURE CAREER

19.In 1938, after dissolving his London office, he took UK citizenship and
changed his name to "Eric."

20.In Palestine, Mendelsohn built many now-famous buildings:

. Weizmann House and three laboratories at theWeizmann Institute of
Science
. Anglo-Palestine Bankin Jerusalem,
. Hadassah HospitalonMount Scopus
. Rambam HospitalinHaifa
. The University Medical Center (1937-1939) on Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem
and others.

21.From 1941 until his death, Mendelsohn lived in the United States and
taught at theUniversity of California, Berkeley.

22.Until the end ofWorld War IIhis activities were limited by his
immigration status to lectures and publications.

23.However, he also served as an advisor to the U.S. government. For

 ERICH MENDELSOHN: ARCHITECTURE CAREER

24.In 1945 he established himself inSan Francisco.

25.His American work included many hospitals, synagogues, and

community centers. Among the most important was the 14-story
Maimonides Hospital in San Francisco (1946); here he emphasized the
horizontal with conspicuously cantilevered balconies with small, curved
projections.

26.Mendelsohn designed a number of synagogues and community centers

in the Midwest, including those in St. Louis, Mo. (1946-1950),
Cleveland, Ohio (1946-1952), Grand Rapids, Mich. (1948-1952), and St.
Paul, Minn. (1950-1954). The Cleveland design was the most ambitious,
successfully harmonizing the central dome of the synagogue with the
building's undulating site.

27. Mendelsohn died in San Francisco on Sept. 15, 1953.

ERICH MENDELSOHN: EINSTEIN TOWER(1919-1921)
ERICH MENDELSOHN: EINSTEIN TOWER(1919-1921)
ERICH MENDELSOHN: EINSTEIN TOWER(1919-1921)
ERICH MENDELSOHN: EINSTEIN TOWER(1919-1921)
ERICH MENDELSOHN: EINSTEIN TOWER(1919-1921)
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: EINSTEIN TOWER(1919-1921)

The Einstein Tower :German- Einsteinturm

Type: astrophysical observatory
Location: Albert Einstein Science Park in
Potsdam, Germany
Architect: Erich Mendelsohn.
Style: German Expressionist Architecture
It was built on the summit of the Potsdam
Telegraphenberg to house a solar telescope
designed by the astronomer Erwin Finlay-
Freundlich.
The telescope supports experiments and
observations to validate (or disprove) Albert
Einstein's relativity theory.
The building was first conceived around
1917, built from 1919 to 1921 after a fund-
raising drive, and became operational in
1924.
This was one of Mendelsohn's first major
projects, completed when a young Richard
Neutra was on his staff, and his best-known
building.
The exterior was originally conceived in
concrete, but due to construction difficulties
with the complex design and shortages from
the war, much of the building was actually
realized in brick, covered with stucco

 ERICH MENDELSOHN: EINSTEIN TOWER(1919-1921)

CONCEPT
The complexity of shapes that
make up the tower reflects on the
one hand, a great sense of artistic
freedom and, secondly, follows the
ideas of Mendelsohn on what he
called "functional dynamics",
although it never came to define
objectively, can be interpreted in
their works in general as a clear
desire for continuous and
integrated forms.

Continuing its forms modulate the

light throughout the day by
generating a series of unique and
original futuristic visions. It is
considered not only an advanced
lab but also a monument "firmly
supported on the ground but also
ready to fly or take a leap," a
product of the aerodynamic
shapes that compose it.

In the climate of an uprising social

order, Eric Mendelsohns Einstein
Tower merged such opposing
concepts based on a formal
strategy of relating mass and
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: EINSTEIN TOWER(1919-1921)

1. The building attracted considerable

attention, particularly because of the
plastic treatment of form, which made
the seven-story tower seem to flow
upward from its rounded base to its
domed observatory. The materiality
adds a plasticity that softens the
monumental qualities of the building
2. This structure typifies Mendelsohns
interest in an architecture of abstract,
sculptural expressionism.

3. The scale and materiality that

attribute the iconoclastic quality to
the tower are balanced by the
rhythmic composition of volumes that
surround it.

4. The arrangement of the curvilinear

masses serves to excite a sense of
movement within the heavy
formations.

5. The lower volumes act as a base for

the central domed tower balancing the
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: EINSTEIN TOWER(1919-1921)

1. The building attracted considerable

attention, particularly because of the
plastic treatment of form, which made
the seven-story tower seem to flow
upward from its rounded base to its
domed observatory. The materiality
adds a plasticity that softens the
monumental qualities of the building
2. This structure typifies Mendelsohns
interest in an architecture of abstract,
sculptural expressionism.

3. The scale and materiality that

attribute the iconoclastic quality to
the tower are balanced by the
rhythmic composition of volumes that
surround it.

4. The arrangement of the curvilinear

masses serves to excite a sense of
movement within the heavy
formations.

5. The lower volumes act as a base for

the central domed tower balancing the
ERICH MENDELSOHN: STEINBERG HAT FACTORY
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: STEINBERG HAT FACTORY

Construction Time: 1921

1923
Architect: Erich Mendelsohn
Address: Industriestrae 2,
14943 Luckenwalde (50km
south of Berlin)
Type: Industrial building.
Style : Expressionist
Architecture
1. The town of Luckenwalde,
Germany established a
name for itself as a key
manufacturer of hats.

2. In 1921, the two biggest

hat-making ateliers merged
(Herrman and Steinberg). It
was decided a large new
factory in Luckenwalde
would be built on Industrial
Road.
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: STEINBERG HAT FACTORY

ARCHITECTURE
On an area of 10,000 square meters, four
production halls (in a row) , a boiler and a
turbine house, ( energy centre) a dyeing hall
and two gatehouses were designed and built.
The whole building is strictly symmetrical from
south to north with the dying mill in the
center.
The genius of Mendelsohn was particularly
evident in the construction of the dyeing hall,
the roof shaped with a modern, shaft-like
hood.
The dyeing hall funneled the toxic fumes out
its chute and it was considered a
breakthrough design.
The tower also resembled cross-section of the
famous Fedora Hat, eventually becoming a
trademark of Luckenwalde.
This shape had a real function and was not
only for looking good. There was an innovative
venting system for drying the hats placed.
The factory and its construction were
considered cutting-edge, using new and
modern materials - steel, concrete, glass and
wood.
On the industrial estate were two parallel
production courses for both hair and wool hats
ERICH MENDELSOHN: STEINBERG HAT FACTORY
ERICH MENDELSOHN: STEINBERG HAT FACTORY
ERICH MENDELSOHN: STEINBERG HAT FACTORY
ERICH MENDELSOHN: STEINBERG HAT FACTORY
ERICH MENDELSOHN: STEINBERG HAT FACTORY
ERICH MENDELSOHN: STEINBERG HAT FACTORY
ERICH MENDELSOHN: STEINBERG HAT FACTORY
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: SHOCKEN DEPARTMENT STORE-1926
Erich Mendelsohn may be most known for a series of ground breaking commercial
structures for the Schocken Department Store chain In Germany, in the years 1928
to 1933.

The most famous stores are the ones in :

A. Nuremberg (Aufseplatz) (built 1925/26),
B. Stuttgart (Schocken Department Store Stuttgart)(192628) and
C. Chemnitz (192730).

. All three can be seen as milestones in modern architecture.

. The only one to survive is the one in Chemnitz, formerly Karl Marx Stadt, in the
eastern section of Germany.

. The beautiful structure in Stuttgart, demolished in 1960, was a victim of

commercial pressures rather than the result of damage in the Second World War.

. The Chemnitz and Stuttgart stores were very different, while still have the sweep
and curvilinear quality of Mendelsohn's work of the period.

. Mendelsohn's department stores are, indeed, glories, a record of a brief and

shinning moment in German history called the Weimar Republic.
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: SHOCKEN DEPARTMENT STORE-1926

SHOCKEN DEPARTMENT STORE IN CHEMNITZ

Night view emphasizes the horizontal slabs

and vertical tower in a Modern idiom.
The tower and slab form

HOCKEN DEPARTMENT STORE IN STUTTGART

 ERICH MENDELSOHN: SHOCKEN DEPARTMENT STORE-1928
IN STUTTGART
1. The Schocken
Department Store
(Kaufhaus Schocken,
later Merkur
Department Store)
was a department
store in the south
German town of
Stuttgart.

2. It was built by the

Schocken department
store chain owned by
Salman Schocken.
3. The architect was
Erich Mendelsohn,
who also built the
Kaufhaus Schocken in
Nuremberg (1925/26)
and Chemnitz).
4. The Stuttgart store
was the most
significant of the
latter's projects in the
sphere of retail store
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: SHOCKEN DEPARTMENT STORE 1928
IN STUTTGART
1. The building was a department store
with a modern style in an urban
context.
2. It was constructed of brick and
concrete.
3. The shopping area within the building
had mainly wooden furnishings and, in
the absence of air conditioning, had a
large number of windows.
4. Again owing to the absence of air
conditioning, the food hall was situated
in the basement.
5. The name of the store was displayed in
lettering some 7.5' in height and
illuminated after dark.
6. The booklet which he designed for the
opening features Mendelsohn's
coloured sketch.
7. He also created a logo and branding
style based on the lettering on the
faade of the store.
8. The department store, together with
the Tagblatt-Turm of Ernst-Otto Owald
across the way, constituted an
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: SHOCKEN DEPARTMENT STORE-1928

IN CHEMNITZ

1. Of the three department

stores that Erich Mendelsohn
built for Salman Schocken
between 1925 and 1930, the
Chemnitz store was the most
fully realized. ( competed in
1930 )
2. Nine stories high and
seventy meters long, this
massive structure (which is
still in use today) achieves
dynamic effect in the
sweeping curvature of five
bands of windows. Horizontal
rows of windows alternate
with the exterior cladding
.During the day, the windows
let sunlight to stream into
the store; at night, the
illumination projects revamp by architecture firms Auer Weber and Knerer und
Lang, with exhibition designer Atelier Brckner, to house
outward.
the State Museum for Archaeology in Chemnitz (SMAC)
3. The ground plan that
resembles a slice of cake.It is
a steel skeleton structure
with a curtain wall
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: SHOCKEN DEPARTMENT STORE-1928
IN CHEMNITZ

1. The restored curved faade

(2010-2014), with its ribbon
windows and limestone
spandrels, seems to float
above the fully glazed ground
floor, forming an arresting
backdrop to a busy
intersection in this central
German city.
2. The faade was restored in
accordance with conservation
criteria, the interior walls
leave the original ground plan
visible, and the different
floors of the main
archaeological exhibition are
connected by three ceiling
openings.

3. The faade was restored in
accordance with conservation
criteria, the interior walls
leave the original ground plan
visible, and the different
floors of the main
revamp by architecture firms Auer Weber and
Knerer und Lang, with exhibition designer Atelier
Brckner, to house the State Museum for
Archaeology in Chemnitz (SMAC)
ERICH MENDELSOHN: MOSSEHAUS
ERICH MENDELSOHN: MOSSEHAUS
ERICH MENDELSOHN: MOSSEHAUS
ERICH MENDELSOHN: MOSSEHAUS
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: MOSSEHAUS

Mossehaus
TYPE: office building
LOCATION: 18-25 Schtzenstrasse inBerlin
, renovated and with a corner designed by
Erich Mendelsohn
YEAR: 19211923.
The original Mosse building housed the
printing press and offices of the
newspapers owned byRudolf Mosse,
mainly liberal newspapers
The original building of 1900-1903, by
Cremer & Wolffenstein, was a neoclassical
sandstone affair, the corner of which was
badly damaged by post first world war
rioting.
In 1921, on the strength of his
Einstein Tower, Mendelsohn was hired to
add extra storeys and a new entrance to
the building.
Mendelsohn retained most of the
buildings main facades, but completely
rebuilt the corner, and added two/three
additional stories, in a totally original,
streamlined expressionist style.
The new frontage made prominent use of
aluminum and modern typography, and the
new upper floors were made fromferro Mossehaus, September 1923.
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: MOSSEHAUS

The use of strips and sculpted elements in

the fenestration gave it a dynamic,
futuristicform, emphasised by the
contrast with the Wilhelmine style below.
Mendelsohns buildings explored the
dynamic of movement; while they became
increasingly influenced by modernism,
they retained their distinctive expressive
qualities. What was also radical for its
time was the focus on the corner of the
building, seen by Mendelsohn as the
dynamic of movement; at the junction of
streets, as opposed to a static entrance
in the middle of a facade.
The emphasized horizontal lines and
celebrated curved corner give the building
an aerodynamic feeling, helping the
building to seem elongated in perspective
It was perhaps the first example of a
streamlined building, and hence a great
influence onStreamline Moderne.
The effect on American architecture is
perhaps unsurprising, as Mendelsohn's
partner on the Mossehaus and the
designer of the interiors wasRichard
Neutra.
The building was very close to the
Berlin wall, so it became dilapidated after Mossehaus in 2006,
World War Two.
ERICH MENDELSOHN: DE LA WARR PAVILION,BEXHILL
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: DE LA WARR PAVILION,BEXHILL

TheDe La Warr Pavilionis a

Grade Onelisted building,
located on the seafront at
Bexhill on Sea,East Sussex, on
the south coast ofEngland.

TheArt Deco and

International Stylebuilding
was designed by the
architectsErich Mendelsohn
andSerge Chermayeffand
constructed in 1935.

Herbrand Sackville, the 9th

Earl De La Warr, was the
patron and namesake for the
project.

Sackville was a refreshing

mixture of centuries old
aristocracy with relationships
to leading intellectuals of his
day.

His sympathies toward his

fellow man led him to convince
the council at Bexhill (of which
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: DE LA WARR PAVILION,BEXHILL

The competition announced by

Bexhill Corporation attracted
230 entries, and was won by
one of the giants of European
architecture, a revolutionary
and visionary, Erich His local
partner would be Serge
Chermayeff.

Although sometimes claimed to

be the first
majorModernistpublic building
in Britain,it was in fact
preceded by some months by
theDutch-influencedHornsey
Town Hall.

De La Warr Pavilion was to be

the first large scale welded
steel-framed building in the
UK. Its walls were painted
ivory-cream, floors covered in
cork or cream terrazzo
ERICH MENDELSOHN: PARK SYNAGOGUE
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: PARK SYNAGOGUE
1. Eric Mendelsohns modernist building,
The Park Synagogue in Cleveland
Heights, Ohio, is one of the most
significant postWorld War II buildings
in the United States.
2. Notable for its magnificent dome and
its natural wooded setting, it also has
an immense architectural influence on
other religious structures in the
Midwest.

3. Erected during the late 1940s, the

Synagogue was built in response to a
large majority of the downtown
Cleveland Jewish population moving to
the eastern suburbs.
4. In 1934, under the leadership of Rabbi
Armond Cohen, the struggling Anshe
Emeth Beth Telfio congregation bought
the twelve-acre property of the
defunct Park School in Cleveland
Heights and later purchased an
additional twenty-one acres of land
adjacent to the Park property owned
by John D. Rockefeller.
5. Plans were developed for a new
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: PARK SYNAGOGUE
1. Eric Mendelsohns Park Synagogue
tells the story of the construction of
The Park Synagogue and examines
how Mendelsohn consciously sought to
express the ideals and traditions of
the congregation and Judaism in its
architectural forms.
2. From one of the worlds largest
copper-clad domes weighing 680 tons
and more than 100 in diameter to the
shape of the sanctuary and
spectacular bimah, Mendelsohn sought
to incorporate the architecture into
Jewish ritual and worship.
3. The outer cladding is copper, which
has oxidized over time, while the inner
layer is reinforced concrete.
4. He favored dramatic curves of glass
walls, circular stairwells, and porthole
windows, and he used the circle as a
dominant form throughout his career.
5. The Park Synagogue is one of the few
Mendelsohn buildings that remains
virtually as it was built.
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
1. The architect Erich Mendelsohns work seemed to define the spirit of the
modern world in the Weimar Republic and 1920s Berlin.

2. Erich Mendelsohn was one of the most prominent and original

architects working during the inter-war period.

3. He studied in Berlin and Munich where he became involved with

Expressionism. These early experiences generated a personal
philosophy of "Dynamism" that demonstrated an attitude that was both
expressionistic and personal in nature.

4. He conceived of his building designs through the use of iconic and

schematic sketches that became literal roadmaps for the development
of all aspects of its exterior form.

5. 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.

6. Indeed, his architectural ideas were derived from expressionistic

sketches and romantic symbolism which recognized that the qualities of
 ERICH MENDELSOHN: DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
8. Erich Mendelsohn was the author of some of the most instantly
recognizable buildings of the 1920s: from the extraordinary organic
expressionism of the Einstein Tower observatory in Potsdam to the
dramatic horizontal curving lines of the Schocken Department store
chain across Germany.

9. His buildings seemed to perfectly capture the mood of the moment,

expressing in graphic new forms the strange and exciting world of
modernity emerging after the First World War

10.Of course his very energy and eclecticism of his work flirting with
expressionism, constructivism , moderne-luxe, and white box high
modernism can at times seem to undermine the importance of the
work.

11. He had such ease and facility in design that the heart of the work
sometimes seems to be missing, and he left no polemical architectural
tracts to help fill in the blanks.

12.His projects were never as spatially inventive internally as Corb or

Mies, their effect more concentrated on the outside in the graphic
photogenic shapes of their faades.