Vitrine XI: Schinkels Klause
As the former Prussian head builder there is still plenty of architecture and other material to see by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in and around Berlin and Potsdam. I wanted to use this digital vitrine to focus on Schinkels practice as an architect and artist and display some unbuilt, visionary and less known projects of his as well as to focus on his extensive collections of drafts and designs for industry and workshops. The figure of the artistarchitect has been a very present one during Berlins history, Julius Posener captured this line of practice and thought well in his publication „From Schinkel to Bauhaus“. Only through a visionary and artistic stream of thought came the more rational/functional structures into the existents that carried the potential for modernism. As with the Crystal Chain Group, Hans Poelzig or Schinkel himself (as many others) the need for an output towards a more fantastic vocabulary enabled an awareness for conscious reduction and mental needs within building culture and society. In this regards it makes sense how the development from Schinkel’s architectural and philosophic fascination for Greek classic antiquity held the potential for modernism (thinking of Mies as the extreme), this shared fascination got processed and refined over the years through generations of architects.
