HIMALAYA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

AFFILIATED TO TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY

CHYASAL, LALITPUR

REPORT ON ROMANTICISM AND

EXPRESSIONISM

PREPARED BY: ALISHA PRADHAN SUBMITTED TO: ARJUN BASNET

B.ARCH/073/01 DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express our special thanks of gratitude to my teacher (Ar. Arjun Basnet) as well
as Department of Architecture who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful
project on the topic (Romanticism and Expressionism), which also helped me in doing a lot of
Research and I came to know about so many new things. I am really thankful to them.

Secondly, I would also like to thank my parent and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this
project within the limited time frame.
CONTENTS:
1) ROMANTICISM
2) CHARACTERISTICS
3) VLADIMIR TATLIN
4) HENRY HOBSON RICHARDSON
5) EXPRESSIONISM
6) CHARACTERISTICS
7) ERICH MENDELSON
8) EDWARD MUNCH
9) BRUNO TAUT
 ROMANTICISM:
Romanticism is also known as the ”Romantic era”. It was an artistic, literary,
musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of
the 18th century and to the mid 19 TH century. In most areas was at its peak in the
approximate period from 1800 to 1850.It was
motivated by a reaction againstthe rational, classical ideals of the 18th century. It
was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as
glorification of all the past and nature. It was preferred the medieval
ratherthantheclassical. In architecture, Romanticism often evokes past styles, suc
h as the Gothic style, seen in the mid-19th-century Gothic Revival.

CHARACTERISTICS:
 Obedience to the nature of materials and laws of structure.
 Use of revival of historic styles of architecture and decoration.
 No attachment to any distinct formula.
 Application of Contemporary engineering.
 Combination of motifs from different styles which appear as ‘telling’
feature in a composition rather than any further significance which they
might possess.
 VLADIMIR TATLIN

Vladimir Tatlin (28 December 1885 – 31 May

1953 was a Russian and Soviet painter and
architect. He was born in Moscow. Tatlin
became familiar with the work of Pablo Picasso
during a trip to Paris in 1913. Tatlin achieved
fame as the architect who designed the
huge Monument to the Third International, also
known as Tatlin's Tower.

TATLIN’S TOWER

 Planned from 1919, the monument was to

be a tall tower in iron, glass and steel which
would have dwarfed the Eiffel
Tower in Paris. Inside the iron-and-steel
structure of twin spirals, the design
envisaged three building blocks, covered
with glass windows, which would rotate at
different speeds (the first one, a cube, once
a year; the second one, a pyramid, once a
month; the third one, a cylinder, once a
day). For financial and practical reasons,
however, the tower was never built.
 HENRY HOBSON RICHARDSON

Henry Hobson Richardson (September 29,

1838 – April 27, 1886) was a
prominent American architect. Along
with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright,
Richardson is one of "the recognized trinity
of American architecture". Education from
Harvard College, Tulane University, École
des Beaux Arts.

Some of his works are:

Trinity Church The Altar and Choir stall

 THOMAS CRANE PUBLIC LIBRARY
 Located in Quincy, Massachusetts.
 Japanese inspired eyelid dormers in the roof on each side of the
entrance.
 EXPRESSIONISM
Expressionism is a term used to describe words of art in which the
representation of the reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision. The
expressionist transforms nature rather than imitates it. Expressionism was an
early 20th-century movement in art and architecture. Developed between
1910 and 1924 among a group of architects from European countries including
Germany, Austria, and Denmark. The architects who designed Expressionist
buildings avoided traditional box shapes and resisted basing their designs on
past historical styles. They tended toward abstraction, which means the
designs weren't based on objects or structures seen in the real world. It was
designed to evoke inner feelings and extreme emotions. Buildings created in
this style made a statement and stood out from the structures around them. It
was characterized by distorted unusual forms and violent colors. Incorporated
innovative building techniques using materials like brick, steel, and glass. In the
late 19th and early 20th century, the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, the
French artist Paul Gauguin and Norwegian painter Edward Munch used violent
colors and exaggerated lines to obtain intense emotional expression.

CHARACTERISTICS:
 In paintings, the use of intense colors, agitated brushstrokes, and disjointed
space were seen.
 Inner feelings expressed through a distorted rendition of reality.
 Distortion and exaggeration of shapes to communicate the emotional
states.
 Reflects the artists or characters state of mind rather that the reality of the
external world.
 Tends to dwell on the darker, more sinister aspects of the human psyche.
 Use of vivid and exaggerated colors.
 ERICH MENDELSOHN

Erich Mendelsohn (21 March 1887 – 15

September 1953) was a Jewish German
architect. He was born in Allen stein, East
Prussia, Germany. He was known for
his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as
well as for developing a
dynamic functionalism in his projects for
department stores and cinemas. Mendelsohn is
a pioneer of the Art Deco and Streamline
Modern architecture, notably with his
1921 Mossehaus design.
 Some of his famous expressionist
architecture buildings are:
 Petersdorff department store
 Einstein tower
 Mossehaus
 Schocken-Chmmitz

At the end of 1918, upon his return from World War I, he settled his practice in
Berlin. The Einsteinium and the hat factory in Luckenwalde established his
reputation. The Hat Factory was commissioned in 1921, Mendelsohn's design
included four production halls, a boiler, a turbine house, two gatehouses and a
dyeing hall. The dyeing hall became a distinctive feature of the factory, the
building was shaped with a modern, ventilation hood that expelled the toxic
fumes used in the dyeing process. The structure even ironically resembled a hat.
 EINSTEIN TOWER
Einstein Tower is an astrophysical observatory in the Albert Einstein Science
Park in Potsdam, Germany built by
architect Erich Mendelsohn. The
project year was at 1920-1924. It is
often cited as one of the landmarks
of the expressionist architecture. It
is a domed observatory atop a
rounded, free-form tower. The
exterior was originally conceived in
concrete, but due to construction
difficulties with the complex design
and shortages from the war, much
of the building was actually realized
in brick, covered with stucco.
Because the material was changed
during construction of the building,
the designs were not updated to accommodate them. This caused many
problems, such as cracking and dampness. It underwent a full renovation in 1999,
to correct problems with dampness and decay that had meant decades of repair.

MOSSEHAUS
Mossehaus is an office building in Berlin. This
project was started at 1923. Mendelsohn was
hired to add extra storeys and a new entrance
to the building. The new frontage made
prominent use of aluminum and modern
typography, and the new upper floors were
made from Ferro-cement. It was perhaps the
first example of a streamlined building. The use
of strips and sculpted elements in the
fenestration gave it a dynamic, futuristic form,
emphasized by the contrast with the Wilhelmine
style below.
EDVARD MUNCH
Edward Munch (12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter.
His work was based on the assumption that painting could sacrifice truth to
nature for expressive purpose.  He used harsh combinations of colors, distorted
forms and exaggerated perspectives. The best known of all Munich’s work is “The
Scream” (1893) became one of the most iconic images of world art.