Paul Scheerbart

  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.

  37

  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.

  38

  39

  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.

  40

  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.

  41

  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.

  42

  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.

  43

  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.

  44

  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.

  45

  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.

  48

  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.

  49

  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.

  50

  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.

  51

  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.

  38

  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