Bruno Taut

Bruno Taut belongs to one of the most prominent architects in Germany. He gained a lot of experience by working as a architect. He studied in Kalingrad and Berlin and started first big projects together with Franz Hoffmann. They opened their own office.

In the 1920s Taut focused on social problems and social housing. As the main architect in Magdeburg he started to plan housing estates. In Berlin he continued to solve the lack of apartments for people with a low income. For the Berlin company GEHAG he was in the position of the chief architect since 1924. In 1930 he started to work as a professor at the Berlin Charlottenburg University for Berlin housing projects and urbanism. Many of his Berlin housing estates became part of the UNESCO. His style adapted the ideas of modern architecture, but most of his houses are characterized by moderate modernism, such as small windows and traditional construction concepts.

With the rise of Nazi power in Germany he fled to Japan. It was difficult for him to find work. In 1936 he was invited by Atatürk to work at the Istanbul University. For the modernization in Turkey he designed the building of the Faculty of philology of the Ankara University, He died of asthma and was burried in Istanbul.

Sources

• Wikipedia Bruno Taut
• Nerdinger, Hartmann, Schirren, Speidel: Bruno Taut: Architekt zwischen Tradition und Avantgarde, 2001
• Bruno Taut 1880-1938: Architekt und sozialer Gedanke0000, 1998