German Postwar Modern

Even though countless books address his life and work, Alvar Aalto still inspires and intrigues researchers to look at his buildings and interrogate them. A recent addition to the large body of literature on the Finnish master is „Aalto and Nature“, edited by Tom Simons and Rainer Knappas and published by Birkhäuser: the book contains five long essays by the editors as well as Johan Märtelius, Vilhelm Helander and Teija Isohauta that examine particular aspects of nature as a source of inspiration for Aalto. Beginning with Aalto’s childhood and his apparent interest in plant life (his 1911 herbary is presented in excerpts) the reader learns of Alvar and Aino’s honeymoon in Italy and the drawings he produced during the trip in 1924 or his photographs of mosques in Iraq and Iran taken during the 1950s. In addition, the authors also address Aalto’s broad frame of reference and inspiration that includes Le Corbusier, Gunnar Asplund just as well as the gardens of the Art-and-Crafts movement.

Aalto’s own organic interpretation of architecture and landscaping is exemplified by the Villa Mairea, Maison Carré and the Paimio Sanatorium, the latter decisively co-designed by Aino. The footways in the surrounding woods that were designed to take patients on extended strolls surrounded by the healing powers of nature. These, just like e.g. other of Aalto’s gardens and the Finnish landscape, are staged in Elina Brotherus’ photographs that alternate with essays and archival materials and in a way reflect Aalto’s concept of landscape as a synthesis of art and nature, staged by the architect according to his own vision.

Kenzo Tange (1913-2005) is widely regarded as a key figure bridging Japan and the rest of the world after WWII, a position that is further underscored by his international projects and close connectedness with the greats of 20th century architecture. At the same time Tange sought to tap into the tension area between Japanese tradition and present day technology, a balancing act that resulted in unique architectural solutions. Yet despite his undisputed importance the number of publications dealing with his (net)works is quite modest. 

In 2012 Lars Müller Publishers released „Kenzo Tange: Architecture for the World“ in collaboration with the Harvard GSD, a handsome and informative volume that finally has been reprinted. In eight essays, that alternate with photographs, plans and drawings, the authors focus on the first two decades of Tange’s independent practice and the particular circumstances he operated in: in postwar Japan the architect was involved in the discussions surrounding reconstruction, tradition, architectural education and the country’s identity. These discussions are exemplified by the Hiroshima Peace Museum and the question of whether its concrete stilts were borrowed from Le Corbusier or represent an homage to the Sosho Imperial Treasure House or the Ise Shrine. Tange himself supported the latter reading of his design. A much more clear reference to Japanese tradition can be found in the Yoyogi Gymnasium: its tensile roof construction referenced ancient Shinto shrine roofs.

What the authors also highlight is the breadth of Tange’s work that also included regional and town planning, photography, furniture design and stage sets. What binds all parts of his oeuvre together is his consideration for the human being as point of reference: even in his megastructures he factored in a potential feeling of isolation that he sought to counter with systems of mass communication. Although this today might seem laughable, Tange’s consideration nonetheless stands out among his contemporaries.

In the period after the Second World War architects in Germany were confronted with a broad range of problems, among them the lack of materials, the handling and potential reconstruction of damaged buildings and tight budgets on the part of both private and public clients. But difficult circumstances often yield particularly creative and ingenious solutions as prove the manifold postwar churches constructed in the first two decades after 1945. Architects like Rudolf & Maria Schwarz, Egon Eiermann, Gottfried Böhm or Dieter Oesterlen dealt very differently with wartime destructions but used the initial situation for strong engagements with the past.

Against the background of increasing numbers of demolitions as well as the search for resource-saving construction methods, Piet and Wim Eckert have edited the present volume that addresses postwar church architecture from a different perspective: recently published by Triest Verlag „Church Buildings: An archive of post-war Modernism“ for the first time takes a comprehensive and multi-perspective look at the constructions underlying innovative church buildings in postwar Germany.

In the book’s six essays the contributors Eva H. Hepke, Franziska Ahrens and Kirsten E. Hollmann-Schröter discuss key characteristics of postwar church buildings and present their examples in photographs, plans, sections and figure-ground diagrams. The key characteristics include a decided anti-monumentality and modesty, the dealing with fragments and their consecutive abstraction as well as transparency and openness. In their essays the contributors transcend the usual art-historical interpretation of postwar church architecture and establish a constructional reading of the buildings, an approach that is both fascinating and insightful.