Page 49 - Studio International - April 1973

and the leaders of the modern movement had entitled The Pleasure City. In seeking further has been transformed into a music palace
rejected. The neo-classical architects saw derivatives for the cartoonist's details it is surrounded by monumental arcades and steps.
skyscrapers as monolithic piles dressed in the possible to look at the work of a number of other This public manifestation of pleasure faces a
same decorative details they had always used, architects working in the German-speaking stretch of water on which gondolas glide,
and corrupted. While it was inevitable that countries including Fritz Schumacher (the transporting passengers to the amphitheatres of
structures were to become their naked selves, Krematorium Dresden, 1908); and the leisure. Its vision is of a futuristic neo-neo-
merely because of economy, Le Corbusier saw partnership of Schilling and Graebner. Other baroque Venice dedicated to sound in the form
it as aesthetic necessity for the new building to sources include Wilhem Kreis, Oskar Kaufman, of Beethoven's fifth symphony. A comparison
generate its own appearance from its plan. Form Hans Poelzig, Theodor Fischer, Friedrich Gilly, can be drawn between this music palace and a
follows function was a contemporary slogan. Karl Schinckel, Klenze and Gartner, Gottfried railway station, the Hofpavillon, designed by
Neither the traditional nor modern school Semper and Jeno Lechner. Wagner in 1896, and also a design for an
thought, however, that the skyscraper way of Wagner's practice was based in Vienna where academy of fine arts published in 1898. This
life might produce the mental phobias that he lived long enough to witness the last days of design incorporated a central pavilion carrying
residents of tower blocks are now known to suffer the Empire. His life and work had great a dome with freely articulated decoration of a
under certain conditions. The twenties were a influence in the changing climate of the early verve and style rarely seen in England.
time of hope, and these sociological problems twentieth century. His Kirch am Steinhof Neo-Classicism had remained constrained in
were yet to reveal themselves. stands at the highest point of a group of this country while it flourished with
Cuningham, despite the modern movement, buildings which contains more than sixty unmistakable energy abroad where it was to
was still looking back as a source for his flat-roofed buildings. It is typical of caricature provide a starting point for the founders of the
architectural inspiration to the last great that a church design has been corrupted into a modern movement. As English taste had never
flowering of neo-classical building in Germany customs house crowning an unlimited vista of indulged in extravagant Neo-Classicism with the
in the late nineteenth century, where man was buildings whose extent is disguised by a death licence and freedom the Germans had assumed,
reduced to the scale of an ant in front of defying bridge so beloved by the Italian it was an obvious point for Cuningham to
monstrous edifices. The main building or futurist Sant 'Elia, but based on the bridge develop in parody in order to exaggerate
Customs House in Cuningham's design in the designs of Wagner. Continental forms to the point of utter
first illustration has all the moral fervour of In 1917, a year before his death, Wagner impossibility. His parody was also directed at
soaring Neo-Classicism that had not been published an article entitled 'Vienna After the those theorists who were formulating the idea
common to the same style in England. This, no War', in which he listed a large number of public that in the future the working man would spend
doubt, emphasized Cuningham's joke. The buildings including monuments, halls, more time at leisure than working.
Einstein Tower, designed by Eric Mendelsohn hospitals, baths, playgrounds, and an airfield, as Cuningham's drawings comprise enjoyment
for Potsdam in 1920, had already rejected well as other buildings which he stated were as well as humour, as did much work achieved
classical detail for a wind tunnelish, art- nouveau necessary to the post-war economy and for the by artists during the twenties. To view his work
appearance, yet still employed flamboyance as an well-being of life in Vienna. Had his vision been now, is to look back with nostalgia and surprise
architectural effect, and it was that type of attempted it would have been as politically that he managed to include so many sources.
flamboyance which was so useful for caricature. extraordinary as magnificent. Wagner had a His drawings were executed as part of a series
Cuningham may have used Expressionism in modern sense of engineering and uninterrupted which includes seven drawings, but which was
his own way, but concentrated for his direct space and their combined importance for the never completed. His illustration, One of the
sources upon the work of Otto Wagner who had city of the future. However he described the London City Baths, A.D. 2500, illustrates 'an era
died only three years before the cartoons were `pernicious' influence of the engineer on of grace and beauty . . . of mens sana in corpore
published. Wagner (1841-1918) was a father of aesthetic matters. He maintained that the sano . . . hygiene is a dominant principle with
modern architecture in that he bridged the gap engineer was a scientist who was to provide new these healthy Londoners of A.D. 2500 . . , after
between traditional architecture and the techniques, but who was to be prevented from the joyous exercise of the bath comes the
advances of technology. His designs had a scale becoming a builder at all costs. He stated that cigarette, etc.' The design of the bath can be
of breadth and vision that was only possible to `the basic conception underlying every structure compared with the swimming bath in the
achieve with modern engineering techniques. is not to be sought in statistical calculations but basement of the RAC in Pall Mall, as well as
Some of his buildings illustrated a style where in a certain natural ingenuity; it is an inventive Roman and Egyptian sources which inspired
different historical forms and modern faculty'. In referring to the future Wagner the design of the bathing costumes and the
construction techniques were combined in a stated that 'our modern way of life is going to decoration on the columns. The fantasy is
monumental way that already left the Beaux bring many things to a head, of which today we completed by such details as a woman about to
Arts behind. Wagner in fact became a have scarcely any conception'. dive off the prow of the gondola in the
secessionist. His plans were based on functional However the commercial artist was able to foreground.
requirements and he expressed his personality take inventions described in the contemporary In the illustration on page 174, A Hive Of
in his building elevations with all the varying popular press and combine Wagner's designs Industry, A.D. 250o, neo-classical sources have
means at his disposal. His designs were with the spirit of Futurism which had inspired become more generalized while the mammoth
conceived as elements of the city of the future, Sant 'Elia, in order to compose his own factory for the production of smoking requisites
a conception that was to influence Frank Lloyd extraordinary conception of the city of the is served by aerial monorail, air ships and a vast
Wright in America. Otto Wagner approached future. As Cuningham was not sympathetic to Wagnerian bridge. In the background on the
the same conclusions that figures such as Le the new aesthetic of functionalism, he therefore right is a Bavarian hill castle in ruins.
Corbusier, Sant 'Elia, Gropius, Mies Van der created his own version of Futurism based on In many ways the cartoons by Cuningham are
Rohe and Neutra were to find they had in monolithic neo-classical forms. not as frivolous as they appear, especially
common. Little did Cuningham realize how prevalent considering his predictions for Piccadilly. By
Cuningham's Customs House is a romanticized music and its multi-amplification for pop calling the drawings 'Anticipations' he can claim
version of Wagner's Kirch am Steinhof in concerts, and smoking were to become in our for himself a place in the history of design as an
Vienna with details drawn from the work of society. A monument in this drawing English futurist, however humorous, but
Bruno Schmitz at Leipzig in 190o, for the The Pleasure City. London A.D. 250o, shows a fantastic. Perhaps he was one of the last artists
Volkerschlachtdenkmal. These same sources are giant hand holding a gigantic 'smoke' polluting to speculate upon the grandeur of a Britain
also used for the illustration on page 173 the air. Another version of Wagner's church which might still have been. q
175