An idea spreads
“Night architecture is something more than a transient phase or a mere stunt. It is a definite type of modern design with immense possibilities for beautifying our cities, which is opening up entirely new and untrammelled perspectives of architectural composition." - P. Morton Shand.
If the foundations of ‘glass architecture’ were laid by the collaboration of Scheerbart and Taut the idea of ‘light architecture’ seemed to develop as part of Expressionism, and in particular the work of members of Die Gläserne Kette (The Glass Chain), a group of influential architects that not only included Bruno Taut and his brother Max but also other well-known designers including Walter Gropius, Hans Scharoun, Hermann Finsterlin, and Wassili and Hans Luckhardt.
The Glass Chain was the remnant of a 50-strong collective of artists, architects and their patrons called the ‘Arbeitsrat für Kunst’ (Workers Council for Art) founded in 1918, which was quickly disbanded after the crushing of the ‘Sparticus Uprising’, a short-lived left-wing revolt that tried to establish a communist state in Germany in January 1919. Their shared utopian correspondence in the form of a chain letter circulated between them over a two-year period gave rise to many of the ideas and principles that were to underpin German Expressionism. It is regarded as being “probably the most significant exchange of theoretical ideas on architecture this [20th] century.” Certainly, their collective vision went on to directly influence well-known architects such as Eric Mendelsohn, and Mies Van Der Rohe. It also informed the work of established contemporaries like Hans Poelzig.
Indeed, the interior of Poelzig’s Schauspielhaus, Berlin (1919), which is recognised as an exemplar of Expressionism, owed a good deal to Scheerbart and Taut’s ideas. It can certainly be seen as one of most complete early forms of ‘light architecture’. The theatre was a repurposed circus building designed for the impresario Max Reinhardt which was fitted out to include a highly decorative ceiling in the main auditorium made up of dropped ‘stalactite’ forms that were backlit to create a glowing effect. Small coloured electric ‘pea-lamps’ were integrated into the end of many of the stalactites to create a glittering constellation whilst the capitals of the fluted ‘fountain’ columns in the foyers provided both the functional and ambient lighting through concealed green, yellow, and pink lighting. As Wassili Luckhardt observed at the time:
“The interior of the large dome is hung with an infinite variety of pendants which are given a softly curving movement by the hollow of the cupola on to which they are fastened, so that especially when light is thrown against the tiny reflectors on each tip, the impression of a certain dissolution and infinity results."
The use of electric light by many of the German Expressionist architects often showed an adherence to its inclusion as part of the overall architectural composition such that it went well beyond function alone, becoming a means of consciously creating an identity for their buildings after dark.
And it is important to understand this aspect of light architecture – the night-time identity of a building. As Neumann explains:
“Berlin was perhaps the most self-conscious of Europe’s capitals in the 1920’s, continuously concerned with its status, prestige and appearance…Photo reports from London, Paris, and New York had long established the nocturnal appearance of a city as a central criterion for metropolitan qualities…In September 1924, representatives of the German film and lighting industries had invited lawmakers and businessmen to a movie theatre on Postdamer Platz and showed them documentary films about New York City and London by night. This screening was part of an ongoing effort to ease restrictions and win support for more ‘Lichtreklame’ (luminous advertisements). All electric advertising has been switched of in 1916 in Berlin, and a hesitant reintroduction in 1921 had made little progress, particularly due to regulations restricting advertising to the first floor. While the initiative sprang from the immediate business interests of the lighting and film industry, it was generally welcomed as addressing a widespread concern."
The relationship between illuminated architecture and illuminated advertising, when overlayed with the utopian visions of Scheerbart, Taut and the Glass Chain, helps explain the lit form of many Expressionist buildings of the 1920’s and 30’s. The idea that the night-time face of buildings was just as important as their daytime image was beginning to gain traction, and it was quickly realised that outcomes could be much improved if the thinking around a building and its form, materials and details integrated both ideas and technology around lighting rather than treated them as an afterthought.
Perhaps the most obvious examples of this new approach are a series of commercial buildings designed by Eric Mendelsohn which interestingly were deliberately photographed from the same viewpoint both by day and night to illustrate the transition between their diurnal and nocturnal image. These included his 1926 Schocken Department Store in Stuttgart, the C. A. Herpic Department Store in Berlin, and the Petersdorff Department Store, Breslau, both completed in 1928. These streamlined buildings clearly and deliberately articulated their form and the identity of the occupier after dark through electric light. In the case of Schocken, the illuminated interior made the building into a glowing lantern, its internally lit signage becoming part of the external expression at night. With Herpic the façade itself was strongly expressed through linear lighting carefully detailed into the external cladding. Petersdorff was different again with concealed internal linear lighting to the edge of the building highlighting a translucent band of glass at the top of the ribbon windows which reflected light from white curtains set back into the space. All three buildings projected a stronger identity for their occupiers by night than they did by day.
Original members of the ‘Glass Chain’ such as Wassili and Hans Luckhardt also created examples of light architecture through the incorporation of illuminated advertising. The most prominent being their renovation of Tauentzienstrasse 3 in Berlin (1927) which was illuminated with concealed coloured linear lighting integrated with brass signage.
‘Light architecture’, however, was not limited to Germany alone with many good examples elsewhere in Europe:
In the Netherlands the famous De Volharding Building in The Hague by Jan Buijs and Joan Lürsen completed in 1928 became an extraordinary inverse of its daytime presence. Clad entirely in glass it became the transparent and translucent version of its much more solid appearance by day. Its glowing glass brick stair and elevator towers, and backlit opal glass cladding, incorporating advertising created the effect of the entire form becoming a glowing lantern at night. It was even topped with a ‘light tower’ that acted as a beacon that could be seen from a distance.
Meanwhile in Britain Joseph Emberton’s 1936 Simpson’s of Piccadilly, London incorporated concealed linear, red-green-blue colour-changing neon lighting into its façade. Controlled by a series of dimmers a wide range of colours of light could be produced including white. The façade panels were also slightly canted to ensure the lighting looked as even as possible. The influence of Eric Mendelsohn’s work is not surprising when it is understood that his previous assistant, the structural engineer Felix Samuely, worked in close collaboration with both Emberton and the Bauhaus artist and designer Làszló Moholy-Nagy to realise the project.
Whilst the idea of integrating illuminated signage and advertising into facades was an important form, the manner in which some architects began to do that effectively created what might be regarded as early examples of ‘media facades’.
Perhaps most notable of these, again in the Netherlands, was the Bioscoop Vreeburg, a small cinema in Utrecht. The famous architect and furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld renovated it twice. The second iteration in 1936 saw the façade being constructed as a series of coloured light boxes that spelt out the name of the building echoing the integration of the principles of both Lichtarchitektur and Lichtreklame. Whilst unfortunately the cinema closed in 1974 the light boxes have been refurbished and remain to this day.