The eagerly awaited monograph on the work of the German architect who redefined the architecture and design of the Modern Movement.
Peter Behrens (Hamburg 1868 – Berlin 1940) can be credited with having redefined the graphic, industrial and architectural design of the Modern Movement. Linked at first to the Secession group and later involved in intense collaboration with the AEG electric company, Behrens had a decisive influence on three leading figures in 20th-century architecture: Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier.
This eagerly awaited monograph by Stanford Anderson – director of the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – presents the work of Behrens in a volume of unprecedented depth and richness. The book retraces the cultural and architectural context in which Behrens worked in the early years of his career, when he directed the School of Arts and Crafts of Düsseldorf. Gathering the results of years of research, Anderson offers a wide-ranging, detailed overview of the activity of the German architect, clarifying certain emblematic points of his concept of architecture and his works.
Projects featured include buildings that have marked the history of 20th-century architecture, such as Behrens’ home at Darmstadt (1900), the pavilion of the exposition of Oldenburg (1905), the turbine factory and industrial complex of AEG in Berlin (1908), the Hoechst plant in Frankfurt (1920-24) and the cigarette factory of Linz.