by Glass! Love!! Perpetual Motion!!!-A Paul Scheerbart Reader Josiah McElheny
therefore much to be recommended; the finish should also be able
to take weather-proof colour. In addition, reinforced concrete should
be provided with plastic decoration; it is as easy to work with the
chisel as granite.
Granite is not exactly easy to work, but it can be done.
16
Enamel and niello applied to
metal panels on reinforced concrete
If thin metal panels can be pressed into the surface of reinforced con-
crete during casting, these can be given an enamel coating — possibly
one of transparent cloisonné enamel.* Small surfaces can also be
hollowed out and filled with niello,† although lacquered niello is only
suitable for interiors. Externally, metal niello would be very effective,
but only precious metals should be used; the patina of bronze would
also be suitable. Glass mosaic, too, is an obvious possibility.
* A pattern of raised metal strips, filled in with transparent enamel.
† A black compound worked into a pattern cut into the surface.
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17
Glass fibres in applied art
It has been forgotten by many that glass can be developed as fibres
which can be spun. The story goes back more than forty years, per-
haps further. I am not sure. These glass fibres may lead to a whole
new industry in applied art; divan covers, chair arms, etc., can be
made of them.
18
The beauty of the Earth,
when glass architecture is everywhere
The face of the earth would be much altered if brick architecture
were ousted everywhere by glass architecture. It would be as if the
earth were adorned with sparkling jewels and enamels. Such glory
is unimaginable. All over the world it would be as splendid as in the
gardens of the Arabian Nights. We should then have a paradise on
earth, and no need to watch in longing expectation for the paradise
in heaven.
19
Gothic cathedrals and castles
Glass architecture is unthinkable without Gothic. In the days when
Gothic cathedrals and castles were rising, an architecture of glass
was also tried. It was not completely realised, because iron, the
indispensable material, was not yet available, and this alone enables
the totally glass room to be constructed. In Gothic times, glass was
entirely unknown in most private houses. Today it is a principal factor
in the architecture of every house. But it still lacks colour. Colour,
however, will come.
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20
Ancient Greece without glass,
the East with ampullæ and majolica tiles
In ancient Greece glass was almost unknown. But before the Hellenic
civilisation there were already many colourful glass ampullae and
lustrous majolica tiles in the countries bordering the Euphrates and
Tigris, a thousand years before Christ. The Near East is thus the
so-called cradle of glass culture.
21
Glass, enamel, majolica and porcelain
All building materials which are durable and obtainable in weather-
resistant colours, have the right to be used. Brittle brick and inflam-
mable wood have no such right; a brick building is also easy to
shatter by explosives, which endanger the whole building equally.
This is not the case in a glass-iron building; only partial destruction
can be induced by explosives in the latter.
Wherever the use of glass is impossible, enamel, majolica and
porcelain can be employed, which at least can display durable colour,
even if they are not translucent like glass.
22
The effects of Tiffany
The famous American Tiffany, who introduced the ‘Tiffany glass’, has
by this means greatly stimulated the glass industry; he put coloured
clouds into glass. With these clouds the most marvelous effects are
feasible — and the walls acquire an entirely new charm, which admit-
tedly puts the decorations into the background, but in particular
situations is quite practicable.
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23
The avoidance of the quicksilver effects of mirrors
If the dangers of Tiffany effects may not be wholly ignored — they
are only dangerous, after all, in inartistic hands — one should only
allow the quicksilver effects of mirrors a utilitarian existence in the
dressing-room. In the other rooms of the house mirror-effects, which
continue to reflect their surroundings again and again in a different
light, disturb the general architectural impression, for they do not
last. When kaleidoscopic effects are wanted, they are perfectly jus-
tified. Otherwise it is best to do without the quicksilver-mirror; for it
is dangerous — like poison.
24
The avoidance of figure-representation in architecture
While architecture is spatial art, figure-representation is not spatial
art and has no place in architecture. The animal and human body
is made for movement. Architecture is not made for movement, and
is concerned with formal composition and ornament. Only the plant
and mineral kingdoms should be exploited — better still the whole
repertoire of free invention — one should not think of the animal and
human body as a design element. The fact that the ancient Egyptians
did so is no reason at all for doing so today; we no longer associate
our gods with the bodies of animals and humans.
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25
The landscape architect and the tree
and plant world in the Rococo period
The Rococo period treated trees and plants as if they were mould-
able clay; to create perspective effects trees were shaped like walls
and yew hedges clipped into geometrical figures. At the same time,
the architect ruled the garden, which he should do today. But such
laborious treatment of plant and tree material does not pay — because
of the changing seasons and transitory results.
More glass walls in the garden would give it quite a different
aspect, linking the garden to the architecture of the house, if the
latter is glass architecture. It is scarcely imaginable what wonderful
effects could be achieved in this way. An occasional mirror-wall close
to pools is worth considering. But not too many.
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26
The door
In our technical age developments occur rapidly; we often forget this.
There is no reason to think that they will suddenly slow down. Fifty
years ago there was not a single town in Germany with main water
and drainage. Fifty years later one cannot imagine a home without
a vacuum cleaner. And there will be many other things which now
strike us as utopian, although those which are now feasible, like
glass architecture, should never be so described.
The door in the glass house, for example, will be unlike those
most commonly found today in brick houses. Self-closing doors are
commonplace nowadays, but self-opening doors will be equally com-
mon soon. The outside doors do not need to open by themselves,
but if the inside ones are self-opening, it is like a friendly ges
ture by
the householder, although he does not have to make any movement
with his hands. The mechanism is actuated by treading quite lightly
on a sensitive plate. It already exists in Berlin pubs, and has been
fully worked out and patented. The idea can be extended; rotating
crystal elements — or flashing lights — can be set in motion in doors;
a friendlier greeting than that of a liveried supercilious servant.
The doors can be made of transparent glass with crystal effects,
and of ornamentally coloured glasses. To every room, then, its own
particular entrance. This should create a more festive atmosphere.
The outside doors can also be of glass.
Cities in their present form are not yet fifty years old. They can
vanish as quickly as they came. Even the permanent way of the steam
railway is not immortal.
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27
The chair
The most complicated item in the whole of applied art is the chair.
The steel chair seems to be an aesthetic impossibility, yet steel can
be made so splendid with enamel and niello that it need not fear
comparison with the finest Venetian carving. The prices of enamel
and niello chairs are far from being higher than carved wood chairs,
for which 400–500 marks are willingly paid. Enamel work is so
cheap that enamelled chairs can be produced very well for 100 marks
apiece.
Of course, an industry which turns out identical chairs by the
score will have to be disregarded. But one can reasonably expect that
an industry which wants to satisfy artistic requirements will stop the
indiscriminate production of identical objects.
The industry of the future will also turn eagerly to glass fibres.
For only fire-resistant materials will be used — both for divans and for
flooring, where glass fibres will prove the most important material.
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28
Metal in art and applied art
It seems to me that habit lies like a heavy lead weight upon art and
applied art. Because in grandfather’s time most furniture and arti-
facts were made of wood, they must continue to be made of wood.
But this should not be so. Glass architecture is also a compelling
influence on applied art and art in general. We shall therefore be
obliged to give preference in all fields to metal. The æstheticians will
naturally try to counteract this, and the threatened timber industry
will mobilise them.
There will be a lot of talk about the valuable associative ideas
inherent in wood. I believe, however, that all the associative ideas
inherent in wood can be transmitted to metal — by developing the
artistic potentialities of metal — as I have already indicated many
times. Metal is supposed to be cold, whereas wood is supposed to
be warm. These are notions born of habit: we found glazed tiles cold
before the existence of the tiled stove. Majolica only became warm to
us because of this association. The same thing may occur with metal.
29
Hollow glass elements in every possible colour and
form as a wall material (the so-called ‘glass-brick’)
So-called glass bricks make a wal material which may well become
an interesting speciality of glass architecture. Large industrial under-
takings have been formed already which could have a big future.
Everything fire-proof and transparent is aesthetically justifiable
as a wal material. Glass bricks should make many iron skeletons
superfluous.
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30
Aschinger’s buildings in Berlin, 1893
If ideas are to be productive, they must really be ‘in the air’ — in
very many heads at the same time — even if in a distorted form.
This became clear to me in 1893 or a little later. Franz Evers was
editing the theosophist journal Sphinx, and in consequence was
overwhelmed with theosophist, spiritualist and other such literature;
in this wilderness there was a lot to make one laugh. One gentleman,
whose name escapes me, asserted that glass was the source of all
salvation; that one must always have a glass crystal near one on the
writing-table, and sleep in a room of mirrors, etc., etc. It all sounded
crazy. But Aschinger’s beer halls, with their frightful mirrors, seemed
to me an echo of that theosophist publication about mirrored bed-
rooms. At any rate some telepathic influence was at work.
I am convinced that every constructive idea will appear in many
heads at the same time and quite irrationally; one should therefore
not speak carelessly about the seemingly confused and crazy; it
generally contains the germ of reason.
In the East the madman is left at liberty and honoured as a
prophet. But that is by the way.
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31
Glass mosaic and reinforced concrete
It must be emphasized that reinforced concrete with a glass mosaic
skin is probably the most durable building material which we have
so far discovered. People are always so afraid that glass may be
shattered by some malicious hand. Now, cases of windows being
broken by stones thrown from the street are probably infrequent
nowadays; stones are far more often thrown at a man’s head than
at a window-pane. But I have never heard of stones being thrown at
glass mosaic.
During the last century, when telegraph wires were introduced, it
was thought that they should all be laid underground for fear of the
rude populace. Today nobody thinks of destroying the overhead wires.
Therefore there is no need to fear that glass houses would be
destroyed by stones flung by the lower orders.
But that, too, is by the way.
32
Heating and cooling appliances in
special columns, vases, suspended elements, etc.
Although the electric light commands the room from between the
double walls, this is not the place for the heating and cooling because,
as already stated, half the warmth and cold air is uselessly dissipated.
For this reason the heating can be installed in columns, vases
and suspended elements, and their outer shells can be designed, like
the oriental ampulla, as delightful decoration.
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33
Lighting between the double walls
(which does not exclude suspended fittings in the room)
I have so often said that the double walls are there, not merely
to maintain the temperature of the room, but to accommodate the
lighting elements. I must ask to be forgiven for repetition but I want
to stress and underline it.
With this type of lighting the whole glass house becomes a big
lantern which, on peaceful summer and winter nights, shines like
fire-flies and glow-worms. One could easily become poetic. But light-
ing can also be installed inside the room. This interior lighting also
illuminates the walls — if not so strongly as the light between the
double walls.
34
The vacuum-cleaner — in the park, too —
also as an insect-exterminator
In the near future the vacuum-cleaner will seem as import
ant as
main water, and it will be used in parks, for the inlaid paths must
be kept free of ‘dust’. The vacuum-cleaner will naturally be needed
as an insect-exterminator. It is absolutely horrifying that today it is
still not used for this purpose. That the vacuum-cleaner has already
been employed for getting rid of street dust, I take to be a known fact.
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35
Ventilators, which are ousting the customary windows
It will seem very natural that ventilators should have a principal part
to play in a glass house, and will supplant everything window-like.
When I am in my glass room, I shall hear and see nothing of the
outside world. If I long for the sky, the clouds, woods and meadows, I
can go out or repair to an extra-veranda with transparent glass panes.
36
Light columns and light towers
Hitherto, columns have served only as supports. Iron construction
needs fewer supports than masonry; most of them are superfluous
in the glass house. In order to make the columns in larger glass
buildings lighter, they can be equipped with light elements behind a
completely glass surround, so that the light columns do not give the
impression of supporting, and the entire architectural effect seems
much more free — as if everything were self-supporting; glass architec-
ture will acquire an almost floating quality with these light columns.
Towns and other places should always be distinguished by towers.
Every effort must naturally be made to lend enchantment to towers
by night. Under the rule of glass architecture, therefore, all towers
must become towers of light.
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37
Direction-finding for aeronautics
Aeronautics will undoubtedly be determined to conquer the night.
All towers must therefore become towers of light. And — to simplify
navigation — every light tower will be built differently, emit a differ-
ent light, and be fitted with glass elements of widely differing form.
Uniformity in light towers is consequently out of the question. The
signaling impulse can be so simple, and the tower itself must be
so different from any other, that the aeronaut will immediately be
informed where he is.
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Ukley mother-of-pearl on the concrete wall
Natural y, transparent walls are not possible everywhere, in particu-
lar because the householder may not always want to sit or lie down