ABSTRACT

In the Bohemian poet Paul Scheerbart's visionary tales, glass was the unchanging constituent of ideal but unknown environments; it altered the face of the earth and made it appear in quite a different light. Scheerbart had no doubt that the imaginative aura of this substance would equally well serve to architects; particularly, to those seeking to challenge the nineteenth century's mechanized interiors and individuals alike. Under the influence of Scheerbart, both saw glass as a contemplative substance that would give rise to psychic aspirations by engaging one with an imaginary insight. Read through under the guise of the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard's outlook, the two architects were after the poetry of materials that science destroyed and, correspondingly, engineers could not read. The art critic Adolf Behne, who hoped for a renewal of arts, which would generate a spiritual revolution and change the modern individual, appreciated the Glashaus having only an inner-artistic purpose.