BUILDING THE WOODEN HOUSE [Technique and Design]
Konrad Wachsmann
Konrad Wachsmann: BUILDING THE WOODEN HOUSE [Technique and Design]. Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser Verlag, 1995. First English-language edition [originally published in Berlin, 1930]. Brown fabricoid titled in white. photo illustrated dust jacket. 141 [xxvii] pp. Two contemporary essays followed by a translated version of the original Wasmuth Verlag edition. Fully illustrtaed in black and white. Multiple paper stocks. jacket lightly rubbed, otherwise a fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket. Uncommon.
8.5 x 11.75 hardcover book with 168 pages devoted to reprinting the 1930 German original with two new essays by Christa & Michael Grüning and Christian Sumi. Translation by Peter Reuss.
“The past decade has witnessed - especially among younger architects - a resurging interest in building with wood. The discourse has in no small measure been influenced by Konrad Wachmanns' classic Holzhausbau. And yet, this standard work (originally published in 1930) was out of print for many years. Now Holzhausbau is again available and appears here for the first time in an English language edition. Wachsmann demonstrates how new forms can be achieved when modern manufacturing processes are adapted to the traditional building material wood. He presents three totally different building techniques: the wood frame, the panel, and the log house methods and illustrates then their wide range of application possibilities by analysing plans and photographs of works of some of the century's most renowned architects. Two introductory essays enable the reader to take new hold of the book and a biographical sketch offers an impression of the times in which Wachsmann worked and lived.”
Contents:
- Konrad Wachsmann: Albert Einstein’s Architect—Pioneer of Architectural Engineering: Christa & Michael Grüning
- Building the Wooden House Today: Christian Sumi
- BUILDING THE WOODEN HOUSE
- The On-Site Wood Frame Method
- The Panel Method
- The Log House Method
After an apprenticeship as a carpenter Konrad Wachsmann [Germany, 1901 – 1980] studied in Berlin at the College of Art and in Dresden at the Academy of Arts from 1920 to 1924. After that he was student of the German constructor Hans Poelzig (1869 – 1936) in Berlin and Potsdam who was one of the main representatives of expressionistic architecture in Germany. From 1926 on Wachsmann was chief architect for Christoph & Unmack AG in Niesky, Lower Silesia, the largest wood construction company in Europe.
Wachsmann developed an industrial prefabricated wood construction system for single family houses in 1925 whose most famous product is the summer house of Albert Einstein (1879–1955) in Caputh near Potsdam.
“In spring 1929 Konrad Wachsmann got to know of the birthday present of the city of Berlin to Albert Einstein (50th birthday) and that Einstein in this connection was interested in a wood house. Thus he went to Berlin to Haberlandstrasse 5 and offered Einstein to build this house for him. After some conversations with Einstein and numerous construction proposals Wachsmann received the order to build the house. About the same time he resigned with the company Christoph and Unmack and afterwards worked as a freelance architect. Einstein and Wachsmann got along with each other very well right from the beginning and Wachsmann later became a very welcomed guest with the Einstein's in Caputh.”
Wachsmann received the Rome Prize of the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1932. It entitled him to work for one year at the German Academy in Rome, in Villa Massimo. Einstein — who had been living in the United States for years — helped Wachsmann to emigrate to the United States in 1941.
In the 1940s Wachsmann worked with Walter Gropius and together they developed the general-panel-system (prefabricated house system) through which Wachsmann also gained international glory.
He taught at the Institute of Design in Chicago from 1949 on and later at the Illinois Institute of technology. Wachsmann moved to Los Angeles in 1964 to teach at the University of Southern California where he worked until he conferred emeritus status in 1974. In this time he worked — among other things — on the further development of construction systems for self-supporting halls, structural engineering and their mass production.