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The 1914 Werkbund Debate Resolved: the Design and Manufacture of Frank O The 1914 Werkbund Debate Resolved: The Design and Manufacture of Frank O. Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao Irene Nero Concern about McDonaldization in architecture is not new pride should dictate that goods be of fine quality, so as not to to architectural discourse.1 The terms of expression may be “pollute the visual environment.”4 different, but some of the important issues are fundamentally Van de Velde, another of the founding members, was also the same as those found at the core of the historic 1914 influenced by England’s Industrial Revolution, but this time, Werkbund debate between Hermann Muthesius and Henry van by its vocal opponent—John Ruskin. Van de Velde was in de Velde. This landmark debate serves as one of the earliest, if agreement with Muthesius that goods produced should be of not the earliest, example of publicly demonstrated concern high quality, but felt that handcrafting in the English Arts among modern architects regarding the origins of design and and Crafts tradition was more appropriate for establishing a manufacture of architecture.2 Primarily, at debate was the is- national identity.5 Both of the powerful Werkbund members sue of architecture becoming a standardized type-object, sub- agreed that quality was an issue in the production of German ject to ubiquitous distribution, versus architecture remaining goods, but had divergent ideas regarding their manufacture. an individualized, artistically-inspired creation. “Sameness” Manufactured goods, however, were not the only items under was an issue, simply because it was deemed an affront to the consideration at the Werkbund exhibition for standardization. creative process. The 1914 debate, which took place at the Indeed, the Werkbund members were concerned with archi- first exhibition of the Deutscher Werkbund, in Cologne, has tectural issues as well—in particular, the social messages in- often been referred to as the unresolved Art vs. Industry ques- herent within architecture. In July of 1914, the two protago- tion. I maintain that in 1997, with a single building, Frank O. nists, polarized by their strong beliefs, eloquently stated their Gehry reconciled the seeming opposition of technology ver- cases at the opening conference of the Werkbund exhibition. sus art, so resoundingly articulated in the Cologne debate. The In the first of ten proposals, Muthesius asserted: “Architec- building in question is the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, ture and with it the whole area of the Werkbund’s activities, is Spain. pressing towards standardization, and only through standard- In terms of understanding the fundamentals of modern ization can it recover that universal significance which was architecture, we must briefly explore the history of the Co- characteristic of it in times of harmonious culture.”6 logne Exhibition. Muthesius, one of the founding members of In the first statement of his ten point rebuttal, Van de the Deutsche Werkbund, had served as architectural attaché Velde maintained the following: “By his innermost essence in 1896, at the German embassy in England. Part of his as- the artist is a burning idealist, a free spontaneous creator. Of signment was to study the effects of the Industrial Revolution his own free will he will never subordinate himself to a type, a on art and architecture in England.3 As a result of this experi- canon.”7 He further stated that the artist should “cultivate . ence, he concluded that design should embrace the machine the gifts of individual manual skill[s] . [and, believe] in the age and begin the task of standardizing forms for machine beauty of highly differentiated execution, uninhibited by stan- manufacture. However, he also felt that machine-produced dardization.”8 goods had fallen to a low level of aesthetics. He wanted Ger- With their differences clearly apparent, Muthesius and many to return to good design and quality, which he felt rep- Van de Velde continued to debate, and the Russians began resented a national purity. Furthermore, he stated that national mobilization for World War I. By August, the unresolved is- 1 This paper was presented at the 54th Conference of the Society of Architec- 4 Conrads 22. tural Historians, in Toronto, Canada, April 20, 2001. At issue was the term McDonaldization, which architects have adopted as a pejorative term re- 5 John Heskett, Design in Germany: 1970-1918 (London: Trefoil Books, ferring to the mindless repetition of contemporary building “styles.” Ltd., 1986) 116. Heskett, among other authors discusses the widely held belief that applied arts could affect the character of a generation. It is this 2 The full text of the Cologne debate can be found in Ulrich Conrads, Pro- belief to which Muthesius, by way of English Arts and Crafts, subscribed. grams and Manifestos on Twentieth Century Architecture, trans. Michael Bellock (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1991) 21. 6 Conrads 21. 3 Joan Campbell, The German Werkbund: The Politics of Reform in the 7 Conrads 22. Applied Arts (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1978) 12. Campbell has provided the reader with a well-documented discussion regarding Muthesius’ for- 8 Conrads 22. mative sojourn in England. ATHANOR XX IRENE NERO sues became moot, because the exhibition was prematurely mountain mist and river mist are periodically reinforced. Gehry terminated, due to the beginning of the war. These issues would has instituted an hourly spectacle, much like the “timed” foun- not gather importance again until the end of the war when the tains at Versailles. At the strike of each hour, streams of mist necessity for rebuilding Europe was evident.9 shoot at oblique angles into the air from below the pedestrian It is with the completion of the Guggenheim Bilbao, some bridge for the duration of five minutes. The ethereal quality of eighty-three years later, that the early modern concerns of art the building becomes even more accentuated. The museum vs. industry were resolved. The Canadian born Frank Gehry has been referred to as a “village of forms,” with its façades demonstrated that an architect could use machines to repro- tilting in and tipping out while curving and contorting in an duce individualized artistic creations. By using a computer unprecedented fashion (Figure 2). Renaissance stasis and sym- program to translate his sketchy, hand-drawn designs directly metry are abandoned for expressive continual movement. into workable computerized drawings, Gehry resolved the Glazed steel-gridded sections, which clearly nod to Walter Werkbund issue of art vs. industry. He showed us that both Gropius’ curtain wall, are employed as both finished exterior ideas could coexist in a building. Furthermore, the architect and interior walls. These glazed panels, cut on the diagonal was able to transform the resultant graphics into pre-fabri- and resembling crystalline shards found in Die Brücke paint- cated sections that were assembled on site. Marked, measured, ings of 1909, or recalling Bruno Taut’s 1914 Werkbund exhi- and cut by computer, these sections served as modular compo- bition building, the Glass House— force the viewer to acknowl- nents, easily recreated due to computer memory. This build- edge an extreme interplay of positive and negative space (Fig- ing could be unique, or one of any number desired. This is ures 3, 4). Additionally, Gehry floated travertine panels, three akin to the standardization that Muthesius so strongly advo- millimeters thick, and indigenous to Spain, onto a steel grid. cated in 1914. It is evident that Gehry’s use of computers (or The travertine serves as cladding for the base, and as the pri- e-technology) has responded to the early modern historical mary material for the land-locked façades. The warm honey- debate that engaged architects for nearly a century. I suggest colored stone is found in Granada. Furthermore, he created a that with the creation of the Guggenheim Bilbao, Gehry has subterranean entrance, rather than a raised temple approach altered the course of modern architectural history. instituted by Alberti and perpetuated throughout nineteenth The Guggenheim site is on the Nervérion River at the century museum building (Figure 5). His subterranean entrance foot of the surrounding mountains. The museum is a visually evokes a primal expression, geographically akin to entering tantalizing building, nestled into its environment, reflecting the nearby caves of Altamira, metaphorically enforcing a pri- all levels and sources of light—creating a continually chang- mordial response to art. With its subtly reflective skin and the ing façade (Figure 1). The titanium-clad building has no ap- complexly multi-faceted façade, the Guggenheim museum is parent stasis because it reflects not only temporal light changes, unlike any other building constructed. but also its surrounding river site, formerly a nineteenth cen- In 1904, Friedrich Naumann, another of the founding tury shipyard. Layers of reflection from the sky and water are members of the Deutsche Werkbund, wrote in the journal Die unendingly present. These natural reflections allow the mas- Hilfe: “Art in the Age of the Machine . [calls for] industrial sive edifice to appear to be in constant motion, and shifting methods of production to be used to create new forms express- form. The building also displays amorphic tendencies due to ing the spirit of the time.”10 Besides aptly describing the its materials and perpetually changing light that distorts and Guggenheim Bilbao, a statement such as this brings into ques- dissolves its form. To further enhance the amorphous quality tion the issue of industry. Certainly, in 1904, at the inception of the museum building, Gehry embraces and accentuates the of an industrialized Germany, buildings such as Behrens AEG atmospheric qualities found in the nearby terrain. A fine natural Turbine Factory, 1908-09, Berlin, were seen as revolutionary. mist exists in the area and makes for numerous hazy days. At With its hinged fabrication the building serves as a machine, first glance, the viewer realizes that Gehry’s use of titanium for the purpose of building machines.
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