by Glass! Love!! Perpetual Motion!!!-A Paul Scheerbart Reader Josiah McElheny
House has an agenda. It is meant to herald a new era of architecture in which
glass wil be on par with iron and ferroconcrete as a building material, both
of which are also natural y indispensible for the glass house’s framework.
Thus, the glass palace wil demonstrate al of the architectural possibili-
ties of glass and wil inspire new perspectives for future “glass architecture.”
The incorporation of glass into architecture wil have incalculable effects
on the glass industry as a whole. Entirely new branches of the industry wil
open for development. The use of glass wil also have a considerable effect
on interior design and the applied arts.
To support this view, let me first explain that in a colorful y ornamented
glass room comprised of colored glass in an iron or ferroconcrete skeleton,
furniture can no longer be placed up against the wal s. This is obvious,
since the glass wal s are the most beautiful and precious elements in the
whole room. This development wil necessarily have a transformative effect
on the applied arts, which wil gradual y have to adapt to glass and iron
architecture.
95
PAUL S C H E E R B A R T
Furthermore, the steel furniture industry wil have to be developed, as
steel furniture belongs in a glass house. Of course a nickel-plated glass
chair cannot simply be placed beside an old-fashioned carved wooden
chair. Steel furniture has to become at least as artistic as the old wooden
furniture. This is no utopian demand, either: much can be done with
enamel and niel o inlay, and I have no doubt that imaginative artisans
wil easily be able to create steel furniture so aesthetical y flawless that it
can compete against wooden furniture, which is not only flammable but
lacks durabilty. In the foreseeable future steel may ful y replace wood as a
material for furniture.
At this point the nonflammable spun glass known as glass hair can also
be considered for the interior decoration of the house. Glass hair can be
very inexpensively and finely produced; a million meters weigh no more
than a kilogram. Glass hair can also be made mal eable with india rubber
or collodion coating. A patent has already been obtained for such clear
coating. Glass hair can be put to good use in carpets, blankets, and cur-
tains. This wil open many new branches of industry. In addition, glass
hair, which as mentioned is very inexpensive to produce, can be used as an
ersatz fil ing material for mattresses and pillows. It cannot be denied that
the use of such nonflammable materials in interior decorating could make
completely fireproof furnishing a possibility.
At first, practical concerns stand at the forefront of glass architecture.
Initial y, it wil be a field for engineers. It is not fantastical future plans that
are at stake here, but rather ideas that could fundamental y improve con-
struction. If, for example, it were merely possible to remove al flammable
materials from living spaces, rendering firefighters practical y superfluous,
something very tangible would be achieved, which couldn’t be criticized for
being “fantastical” or “dreamlike.”
Taut’s domed hal , whose rhomboid form is reminiscent of the Mameluke
graves of Cairo, has “double” glass wal s. This too is a “practical” mat er.
Air conducts heat poorly, so having an insulating layer of air, as occurs be-
tween glass wal s, is a simple way of heating and cooling every room, that
is to say, of making the space livable.
The two glass wal s may also be spaced a meter or two apart. The glass
house can therefore look very different from the outside than from the in-
side, as any desired form may be fused into the wal s. This gives architects
valuable artistic perspectives, which must not be forgotten when judging
the value of glass architecture.
96
G L A S S HOUSES: BRUNO TAUT’S G L A S S PALACE
Wire-glass is recommended for the exterior wal s. The wire-glass
industry wil therefore also greatly develop. In his Glass House, Taut has
used Luxfer Prisms for the exterior wal s.
The lighting elements are housed in the space between the two wal s.
This achieves wonderful effects of light both from outside and inside the
house. . . .
The heating and cooling mechanisms can also largely be suspended
or placed overhead. This idea wil necessarily reshape the heating and
cooling industry, which until now has real y been quite unartistic. Today’s
crude-looking radiators can’t be used in a glass house.
The exhibition space in the Cologne Glass House wil display a col-
lection of al the existing types of glass — wire glass, frosted glass, filigree
glass, glass blocks, enamel, enamel plates, glass mosaic, glass hair, tiffany
glass, etc., in order to demonstrate the revival of the glass industry.
The included il ustrations only show the Glass House from outside.
The main room of the house — the large glass domed hal — is 10 meters
wide and more than 7 meters high.
Opaque colored glass covers the surface of the wal s in the ornament
hal , which is on the lower level; many new materials are used in this room.
The middle of the hal contains a waterfal , which is illuminated by a
moving kaleidoscope. The kaleidoscope employs glass in a magnificent and
rich variety of colors.
Glass architecture wil also greatly enhance the significance of orna-
mentation. Ornamentation is usual y preferable to figuration, as can be
seen in the great Rhenish cathedrals.
Glass architecture strives for a cathedral-like effect, which in my opin-
ion can also lead to positive moral effects.
The subject of glass architecture has only been lightly touched upon
here. I hope I wil have more frequent opportunity to write on glass archi-
tecture for the T.M. There is so much to discuss that an exhaustive investi-
gation cannot be offered in only a few pages. Even addressing just the
technical aspects, which play a very important role, since many new mate-
rials for the glass industry haven’t yet been investigated, takes up a lot of
space. It is precisely this which must be further discussed here.
Translated by Anne Posten
97
“Glashaus Werkbund-Ausstellung Cöln 1914” (Glass House Cologne Werkbund
Exhibition 1914) by Bruno Taut, was published to accompany Taut’s Glass
House at the 1914 Cologne Werkbund Exhibition. The Glass House was still
under construction when the exhibition opened to the public in May 1914.
The building was finished most likely around July 1914, in the time for the
annual Werkbund meeting. Taut begins the brochure with an epigraph quoting
Scheerbart’s Glass Architecture and uses a Scheerbartian aphorism on the cover:
DER GOTISCHE DOM IST DAS PRÄLUDIUM DER GLASARCHITEKTUR (The
Gothic cathedral is the prelude to glass architecture). In this example preserved
at the Baukunstarchiv in Berlin, Bruno Taut’s penciled note on the front cover
reads: Best wishes! You really must come to Cologne. T[aut]
98
We live for the most part in closed rooms. These
form the environment from
which our culture
grows. Our culture is to a certain extent the prod-
uct of our architecture. If we want our culture to rise
to a higher level, we are obliged, for bet er or for
worse, to change our architecture. And this only
becomes possible if we take away the closed char-
acter from the rooms in which we live. We can only
do that by introducing glass architecture, which
lets in the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars,
nor merely through a few windows, but through
every possible wal , which wil be made entirely of
glass — of coloured glass. The new environment,
which we thus create, must bring us a new culture.
100
Bruno Taut
Glass House
Cologne Werkbund Exhibition 1914
The Glass House has no purpose other than to be beautiful. It is intended
purely as a structure for exhibition and should be a beautiful source of
ideas for “lasting” architecture but is not itself intended as such. According
to the poet Paul Scheerbart, to whom it is dedicated, the Glass House
should inspire the dissolution of current architecture’s far-too-restricted
understanding of space and should introduce the effects and possibilities of
glass into the world of architecture. May it, in its own way, help to foster
a transformation of building toward the light and grace that it currently
sorely lacks.
The Glass House il ustrates the architectural possibilities that lie hid-
den in glass, which until now has been used either sparingly or not at al .
The house attempts to display a comprehensive variety of ways that glass
can be used as a material for wal s, ceilings, and floors, along with several
decorative effects and some unique manufactured glass items.
The success of this kind of building depends not only on designing
the entire weight-bearing structure to be as light as possible, but also on
making the supporting elements in each section as minimal as possible.
The former is achieved with a roof-framework that departs from the typical
geometry. This lightness is a result of the fine craftsmanship of the Gen-
eral Concrete and Iron Company LLC of Berlin, which alone of al the
companies consulted for the project undertook the calculations and the
practical realization of the structure. Despite terrible storms in March, the
company was able to erect the entire reinforced concrete skeleton in five
weeks. It should be noted particularly that the ribs of the dome are reduced
to 12⁄20 cm and that the sheathing of the concrete framework was therefore
seldom difficult or complicated.
Visitors to the building proceed along the fol owing path: first, a concrete
staircase leads to the terrace. Wal s made of Luxfer Prism glass (German
Luxfer Prism-Syndicate) enclose the house, and in fact one of the afore-
mentioned company’s patents, for Keplerian Reinforced Concrete-Glass
(very thin reinforced concrete ribs between the pieces of glass), was put to
good use here. The dedication plaque embedded in the wal exemplifies a
101
BRU NO TAUT
particular method of electrolytic glass bonding. Two Luxfer-glass glazed
iron staircases lead upward from the terrace to the hal of glass. The inner
surface of the dome consists of very costly Luxfer Prisms, some of which are
made of solid colored glass, but otherwise al of which are backed by col-
ored glass panels mounted in galvanized copper. New arrangements and
even new shapes have been developed for the glass prisms. The German
Luxfer Prism-Syndicate is the only company in Germany that manufac-
tures this type of beautiful prism glass for architectural use. In order to
protect this precious inner shel from dust and rain, the dome is external y
glazed with large plate glass panes. The outside gives the visual impression
of a crystal made up of rhombi, while the plate glass also serves a crucial
temperature-control ing function by dispersing the sun’s warmth through
the layer of air between the panes. Luckily, the sirocco winds ventilate
the house wel enough to overcome the greenhouse atmosphere one might
justifiably fear in a glass house. The floor of the glass hal is also comprised
of a rhomboid pattern of Luxfer Prisms combined with yel ow and white
glass circular panes.
An opening in the floor looks into the basement of the Glass House, where
the waterfal and the kaleidoscope are located. Two Luxfer-glass staircases
lead downward between Luxfer-glass wal s. The wal s of the upper circu-
lar section of the basement are made of silver smalt. Silver or gold smalt is
the name for glass that has a sheen of silver or gold yet is translucent. This
product is made by the Puhl & Wagner company of Treptow in Berlin,
which is the only company to hold a patent for and manufacture such glass.
A number of artistic lead-glazed windows are embedded in the mother-
of-pearl-like wal s, foremost among which is a large window designed by
the painter Franz Mutzenbecher and realized by J. Schmidt-Berlin. Al of
the other windows also demonstrate special effects of glass. The ceiling of
the room is tapered and consists of luminescent red flashed glass and gold
smalt mounted in lead. The J. Schmidt and Gottfried Heinersdorf compa-
nies of Berlin, who hold a deservedly high reputation for stained glass, are
responsible for the execution of the wal s and ceiling.
A waterfal bubbles forth from a round pool in the center of the ornament
room, forming ever-changing shapes as it pours downward over five terrace-
like levels. This cascade is made of ornamental and plate glass mounted
on a strong backing of unpolished glass and is lit from behind with Osram
lamps. The construction of the cascade posed serious difficulties, as the
large glass sheets and the strength of the light sources behind them made it
difficult to make the structure sufficiently watertight. The rim of the fountain
102
G L A S S HOUSE
has a border of black glass tiles. The United Zwiesel and Pirna Colored
Glassworks Corp. of Munich was responsible for the construction of the
waterfal , as wel as for al glass materials used in its construction, including
the unusual-looking “slag glass” (a waste-product of the glassmaking process
from the hearth of the furnace), with the exception of the precious glass
beads scattered throughout. The same company also made and instal ed the
aforementioned glass tiles for the cascade’s rim and for the wal s. This tiling
is particularly noteworthy, as it exhibits an exceptional y rich range of colors
arranged in painterly compositions. The Zwiesel and Pirna Colored Glass-
works make tile in a wide variety of colors that cannot be found elsewhere,
for example gold-red, iridescent black, and the like. These two factories are
the only ones in Germany that make this kind of solid colored glass tile.
The same company made the glass ceiling of the cascade room, making the
company responsible for the entire inner casing of this room, right down to
the floor. The floor does not depart from the house’s uniformity of materials.
It contains a be
autiful glass mosaic of blue and black glass pebbles made by
N. Rosenfeld & Co. of Berlin.
The cascade’s downward trail leads the eye to a purple fabric-lined
niche with a screen, upon which rhythmical y shifting kaleidoscopic images
are projected. The beauty of the images reminds the viewer of childhood.
Until now, what the eye sees in a kaleidoscope had never been successful y
projected onto a screen, since in the projected image the mirrored parts
of the image are usual y obscured by the opacity of the tube that holds
them. This is the first time that such clear kaleidoscopic images have been
projected. The contents of the kaleidoscope itself were composed by vari-
ous artists and are displayed in rotation. Even if the image created by the
system of mirrors is a result of chance, the artistic choice and arrangement
of colors and forms inside the tube can create very individualized results.
Once a visitor has enjoyed the effects of the various rooms, from the
light-fil ed colored glass hal to the mother-of-pearl and gold smalt room
and final y the cascade and the impressive kaleidoscope, two doors at
ground level lead back into the open air. In the evening, the il uminated
building attracts the gaze. In a glass house there is no need for the external
“il umination” of arranged lightbulbs or the like. One needs only to light
the rooms of a glass house, and it wil be beautiful y illuminated outside as
wel . Large white spheres hang from the ceiling of the dome — seven, the
holy number — each one as bright as a thousand candles. Made of precious
English frosted glass, these fixtures drench the entire building in a strong
light that reflects on the prisms and makes them sparkle magnificently. In
103
BRU NO TAUT
the middle of the circle formed by these seven spheres hangs a large cluster
of colored lightbulbs, which, in contrast to the white light of the spheres,
complement the colors in the building. As in the glass hal , the cascade
and the kaleidoscopes are illuminated by Osram lamps made by the Auer
Company.
Al of the participating companies and the Werkbund deserve thanks
for their contributions to the realization of the Glass House. I hope that
it wil win many new supporters of the intimate charm of glass and glass
architecture. To complement the effect of the house, several designs for other