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Hugo Häring: on proportion (Proportionen)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2008

Peter Blundell Jones
Peter Blundell Jones
Affiliation:
School of Architectural StudiesUniversity of SheffieldSheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom
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Abstract

For Hugo Häring, the role of geometry was one of the central issues in architecture. For him, geometric ordering systems were a deadening force. He rejected Le Corbusier's view that ‘geometry is the daughter of the universe’ and doubted the aesthetic efficacy of proportional systems. He believed that there was no absolute: geometry had different meanings at different times and places and was often present for purely technical reasons. This essay on proportion was written shortly after the Nazis came to power and Häring lost all his work. It was then that he turned to writing, both as a means of legitimating his Modernism as not un-German and, as in the case of this essay, of setting out his developing theories. Peter Blundell Jones' introduction gives the background to this, the first translation of this important work to be published in English.

Type
Documents
Information
arq: Architectural Research Quarterly , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , Winter 1996 , pp. 50 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

Häring, H. (1931). ‘Problems of Art and Structure in Building’ in Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung, vol. 29, 15 07 1931. English language translation by Peter Blundell Jones in 9H no. 7, London, 1985 pp. 73–82Google Scholar
Spengler, O. (1961). The Decline of the West (abridged edition), London, George Allen and Unwin, 1961, pp. 66–68.Google Scholar
Wittkower, R. (1949). ‘Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism’ in Studies of the Warburg Institute, vol. 19, 1949. Later published in book form London, Alec Tiranti, 1952.Google Scholar