Hugo Häring

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Hugo Häring
GERMANY

The secret of form is that through it the invisible  becomes visible.

HUGO HÄRING
1882 - 1958

As architect Hugo Häring was only able to design relatively few buildings. However, as a theorist he was all the more productive and influential. As secretary of the architectural association called The Ring, he became the outspoken defender of the "new way of building".

Not only did he reject the use of old stylistic elements that characterized the architecture of his day, he also very soundly criticized the geometric language of form used by Le Corbusier. According to him the form of a building should not be developed from without but from within, that is from the very nature of the design brief itself. The building should be an "organ" for its function. In this sense he regarded nature to be his prime example.

This priority of his can best be appreciated in his design for the Garkau Estate and his studies of the floor plans for residential flats. Through the architectural association The Ring he met Hans Scharoun who remained his lifelong friend. Häring’s theory of "organic design" provided a firm theoretic foundation for Scharoun’s work. Conversely, Scharoun’s buildings are probably the best illustrations of Häring’s conception of architecture.

After the Second World War Häring devoted himself almost exclusively to the riddle of form and to the question of how the spiritual element can be drawn out to develop the form.
 

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Garkau EstateGarkau Estate Scharbeutz, Germany, 1922-1926