Hugo Häring: The Secret of Form

Hugo Häring (1882-1958)was key to the development of Modern Architecture as we know it. His few realised projects, including the almost legendary Garkau Farm, near Lübeck (1923-5), the Sausage Factory at Neustadt (1925/6) and blocks of flats at Siemensstadt in Berlin, along with his writing and theory of Organic Architecture, continue to fascinate cultural historians and influence the work of contemporary architects such as Behnisch & Partners, Caruso St.John and Florian Biegel.

Hugo Häring believed that architecture should not be imposed as a preconceived idea but rather discovered in an exploration of the place and conditions that the building is intended to serve. This set the emphasis on process rather than product, and on the expression of the task as opposed to the personal expression of the architect.

Since inspiration was to be found in the functional programme of the building, Häring has also been called 'the most extreme of functionalists' (Posener), but his attitude was far from utilitarian. He wanted an architecture that responded to immediate conditions and therefore reflected them: an architecture of the utmost appropriateness. In his view the greatest obstacle to a building becoming what it needed to become was the imposition of 'geometry '. Whether this took the form of an axial methodology like that of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, a systematic grid like that of the Rationalists, or a Platonic belief in pure forms and proportions as held by Le Corbusier, Häring saw imposed geometry as a straitjacket cramping a building's natural development. His critique of these methods was important for the attention it drew to a central issue for the Modern Movement: Gestaltung or form-making.

Häring was also important in the politics of Modern Architecture in Germany. When he arrived in Berlin in the early 1920s he became friendly with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and for some years the two shared an office. Together in the mid 1920s they set up The Ring, an organisation of architects which counted among its members all the main German Modernists, and which paved the way for CIAM. Häring was the Ring's secretary, organising its exhibitions and publications, and he also wrote polemical articles on contemporary issues in architectural politics. He and Mies shared a common conviction that the way forward in architecture was a return to first principles, but they each worked on their own projects, and from the beginning Mies pursued a somewhat reductive interest in simple and universal design solutions while Häring in contrast sought the utmost specificity. The polarity between them helped each to establish his territory more clearly, and Häring's position remains important as the defining antithesis to Mies's.

While Mies's background lay in the Neo-classicism of Peter Behrens and the much earlier work of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Häring had been taught by the great South-German planner and contextualist Theodor Fischer, who drew on the city planning theories of Camillo Sitte and the pan-European tendency known as National Romanticism. Mies and Häring thus extended a debate from the previous generation, a debate that has continued in some ways to this day. It is about the advantages and disadvantages of repeatable building types as opposed to the unique building dedicated to place and purpose, and it is about whether architecture should be contingent or transcendent. Similarly still in flux are questions about the need for flexibility and the appropriate use of the machine. A surprising amount of work in the eighty or so years that have elapsed since Mies and Häring met to discuss architecture can be seen as an extension of their discussion.
The exhibition at Cube, curated by Peter Blundell Jones and Nasser Golzari, focuses on ten projects - illustrated through a series of models, drawings and photographs - which pinpoint particular aspects of Häring's work.

1. Romer house 1916-20
This is Häring's most important premodern work, an elaborate house built on top of an old fortification system, exploiting and modifying its given geometry. The style is romantic and vaguely medievalist, yet also rather inventive. Particularly remarkable is the free-flowing stair meandering through the vaulted entrance hall. In this building we see most strongly the contextualist influence of Häring's teacher Theodor Fischer.

2. Club Germania, project for Rio de Janeiro, 1923
This telling project was drawn in two versions, Classical and Modernist, which share the same plan. They show Häring on the brink of the new era, wondering how to develop his art, and experimenting with styles drawn from contemporary
painting. The asymmetrical organisation of the building, the progression of the spatial sequence up the staircases and Häring's attempts to deal with the tropical climate are also of interest.

3. Garkau Farm, near Lübeck 1923-5
This is Häring masterpiece and the centrepiece to the exhibition. As he was unable to build until 1924, it represents the synthesis of his modernist thinking for the first time in physical form. In his famous cowshed, Häring researched all the issues of keeping and breeding cattle, producing a novel organisation of great efficiency and also exploiting the properties of materials. It is the very epitome of working from the inside out, from principle to form, and discovering the identity of the building in the process. A large model has been made of the whole Garkau complex including the well-known cowshed and barn, but also the unbuilt house and pigsty/stable block. There are high quality colour photos of the buildings in their restored state, photos of the original archive drawings and an important original text on the cowshed which has been translated.

4. Sausage Factory Neustadt 1925/6
This was a follow-up project to Garkau in the same region. It was built and stood
for 50 years, but was demolished in ignorance of its authorship in the 1970s. Once again, Häring took a strongly Functionalist line, developing the form of the building around the requirements of the production process. Unlike the Garkau cowshed it is orthogonal in plan, but the variations in section for lighting and ventilation are somewhat complex.

5. Projects for the Berliner Secession Art Gallery 1926
This is another design in two versions which make a fascinating contrast. At first Häring developed a symmetrical plan with a central entrance and main staircase leading to paired first- floor galleries. His main interest seems to have been in the section of the northlight roofs and the effect of stepping them back and forth. He then conceived a more radical version. Abandoning the symmetry and orthogonal layout, he moved the stair to one end, letting it rise in a great curve. He also made the stair-landings into a sculpture gallery. The complex spaces were quite unprecedented, anticipating those designed by Scharoun and Aalto after the Second World War. The switch from classical axial planning in the first version to the free-flowing space of the second was a crucial development for Modernism, and Häring was at the forefront. Unfortunately he never had a chance to build anything like it.

6. Project for a minimal vaulted house, 1930
In the late 1920s Modernist architects were deeply concerned with the question of how to provide mass-housing, undertaking much analysis and making numerous experimental designs. Unlike other modernists who suggested high-rise, Häring's answer to mass housing was what he called Flachbau, single storey courtyard housing under shallow vaults made with sprayed concrete. With everything on the ground, there would be immediate access to outdoor spaces and no overlooking.
Running in north-south rows with short facades to east and west, the houses could also gain south light through the roof. Häring's prototype was built only as an sample at a Berlin building exhibition, but with so little surface area, the houses would have been extremely economical and promised a surprisingly high density.

7. Siemensstadt housing 1930-31
This was one of the most famous Berlin Siedlungen of the late 1920s with a
site-plan by Hans Scharoun. Häring contributed a row of slab blocks which are famous for their lively rounded balconies and boldly coloured facades in natural materials which contrasted strongly with the white rendered blocks adjacent. The Siemensstadt blocks are Häring's best-known buildings apart from Garkau and are in good condition after recent restoration.

8. Farm project from 1943
This interesting project was preserved only in faint pencil drawings in the Häring Archive, but these have been redrawn and it turns out to be a very detailed and well thought-out design. Its main interest is that it shows a later reinterpretation of the ideas seen at Garkau, including the cowshed, though in one agglomerated building. An excellent model has been built, and the retraced versions of the drawings -plan, several sections and all elevations ñ make the planning and intentions clear.

9. Plan for a family house 1946
Devoid of real commissions in the 1940s, Häring put much energy into a series of plans for possible houses using the processes and rituals of domestic life as a starting point. A roofless model has been built to one of the best known
plans - unbuilt, with no known site, and with only one elevation. This design can also be related directly to Härings seminal text Work on the ground-plan.

10. Post-war courtyard housing 1949-50
After the Second war Häring hoped once again to be able to put his ideas about
housing into practice and he made numerous further designs for small courtyard houses of various types and constructions. Typically, they are distinguished by developing rich and complex territories within very small floor areas. There is a small model of one rather unorthodox type, along with reproduced drawings for several others.

(Derived from texts by Peter Blundell Jones, co-curator of the exhibition with Nasser Golzari)
Further reading

1. An catalogue accompanying the exhibition, written and design by Peter Blundell Jones, is available at Cube priced £10.

2. A more expansive exploration of Hugo Häring is available in Peter Blundell Jones' book Hugo Häring: the Organic versus the Geometric, Edition Axel Menges Stuttgart 1999. This is also available in the RIBA Bookshop.

Supported by

Exhibition credits
Hugo Häring: The Secret of Form is sponsored at Cube byAstra Signs
The exhibition could not have happened without the co-operation and support of many people and organisations listed below, but three primary acknowledgements must be made:

1. the Akademie der K¸nste, Berlin which supported Professor Blundell Jones's research and made archive material available. Special thanks are due to Achim Wendschuh.

2. the Arts Council of England for providing the grant which launched the exhibition and another for the tour.

3. the University of Sheffield which provided facilities for the production and transport of the models, the exhibition panels and the catalogue. Special thanks are due to technicians Melvyn Broady and Peter Williams.

Additional financial support came from the following firms and individuals:

Mike Hibbs Architect Gasell Profiles Limited
Nasser Golzari Architects Edward Cullinan Architects
Professor Blundell Jones thanks all the owners of Häring buildings who provided access, and the many individuals from the Scharoun/Häring circle who, over the years, provided help, information and advice. Special mention must be made of Eberhard Zell, restoration architect for Garkau who also uncovered the fate of the factory at Neustadt. A special acknowledgement is also due to the late Margot Aschenbrenner, Häring's assistant and the editor of his posthumous papers, who played a vital role in the development of the Häring monograph.

Exhibition design
Setting designed by Nasser Golzari, Neil Kiernan, Nicholas Hobbs, and Christopher Wilson.
Panels were by Peter Blundell Jones with help from Peter Lathey. London Installation was by Steel Deck.
Models made by students and graduates of the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield.
Garkau Farm: Alan Williams and Rachel Hain.
Later farm project: James Potter.
Sausage Factory and Ràmer House: Andrew Dobson.
Berliner Secession Gallery: Stephen Brunker, Christopher Hill and Christopher Dunn.
Club Germania Rio: Bev Adams.
Minimal Vaulted House: Delia Harmston.
Experimental single-family house: Michael Hall
Post-war courtyard house: Ian Wright.

Opening times:

Mon-Fri 12-5:30pm
Saturdays 12-5pm
Sundays closed