David Vogel (architect)

David Vogel (born December 6, 1744 in Zurich ; † December 10, 1808 there ) was a Swiss architect , architectural theorist and politician .

Life

Vogel completed an apprenticeship as a bricklayer in his father Heinrich Vogel's company. For the purpose of studying classical architecture and sculpture, he went to Rome in 1763 , where he was taught by art and architecture theorist Johann Joachim Winckelmann through the mediation of his Zurich friends . He went on numerous study trips and built up a comprehensive library of ancient architecture. Back in Zurich, he worked as a builder from 1766. However, he did not receive his first major order for a rectory until 1773 in Rorbas, shortly afterwards he built the church in Embrach .

In 1794 he traveled to Paris , which was shaken by the aftermath of the French Revolution . The staunch republican became a building inspector under the Swiss regime after the Swiss Revolution of 1798 . He also continued to be involved in political issues.

plant

Rorbas Rectory

Embrach Church

Towers of the Stadtkirche Winterthur (Vogel's north tower on the right)

Vogel was one of the first Swiss architects to build in the classicism style . His main work is the church of Embrach, conceived as an oval transverse church, which combines a specifically Protestant spatial concept with the sober rigor of the early classicist style.

Vogel created several designs for church buildings that were supposed to meet the demands of the Reformed preaching service. The designs include oval and trapezoidal floor plans. The floor plans are partly reminiscent of the proposals of the baroque architectural theorist Leonhard Christoph Sturm .

Works (selection)

• 1773–1776: Rectory in Rorbas (simple, classicist building)
• 1789–1780: Reformed Church Embrach (rare transverse oval building with a mighty risalit and incorporated front tower in classical forms)
• 1794: North tower of the town church Winterthur (in baroque forms, stylistically based on the south tower)

literature

• Hans Baer: 200 years of the "new" church in Embrach. Embrach 1980, pp. 4-13.
• Georg Germann: The Protestant Church Building in Switzerland. From the Reformation to Romanticism. Zurich 1963.

Web links

• Sylvain Malfroy: Vogel, David. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .