Behrens House on the Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt
N 49° 52.554 E 008° 40.032
32U E 476087 N 5524885
Designed by Peter Behrens and built in 1901 as his private residence, it marked the beginning of his career as an architect.
Waymark Code: WM2RVT
Location: Hessen, Germany
Date Posted: 12/16/2007
Views: 196
Biography of Peter Behrens from Wikipedia.
He studied painting in his native Hamburg, as well as in Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe, from 1886 to 1889. In 1890, he married Lilly Kramer and moved to Munich. At first, he worked as a painter, illustrator and book-binder in a sort of artisanal way. He frequented the bohemian circles and was interested in subjects related to the reform of life-styles. In 1899 Behrens accepted the invitation of the Grand-duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse to be the second member of his recently-inaugurated Darmstadt Artists' Colony, where Behrens built his own house and fully conceived everything inside the house (furniture, towels, paintings, pottery, etc.) The building of this house is considered to be the turning point in his life, when he left the artistic circles of Munich and moved away from the Jugendstil towards a sober and austere style of design.
In 1903, Behrens was named director of the Kunstgewerberschule in Düsseldorf, where he implemented successful reforms. In 1907, Behrens and ten other people (Hermann Muthesius, Theodor Fischer, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Bruno Paul, Richard Riemerschmid, Fritz Schumacher, among others), plus twelve companies, gathered to create the Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk (Universal Workshops for Art in Handicraft) . The Universal Workshops were influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, though it had more modern purposes. They were willing to create for the industry, change the social structure from a class divided society to an egalitarian mass society and re-humanize economy, society and culture.
Style: Art Nouveau
Structure Type: Residential
Architect: Peter Behrens
Date Built: 1901
Supporting references: Not listed
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