Hans Brechbühler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bern trade school, the main work of Hans Brechbühler.

Hans Brechbühler (born May 25, 1907 in Bern ; † September 11, 1989 in Ittigen BE) was a Swiss architect, university professor at the ETH Lausanne and representative of the second generation of architects of the New Building .

education

Brechbühler studied 1926–1929 with Karl Moser at the ETH Zurich and 1928–1929 with Hans Poelzig at the Technical University in Berlin. 1929–1930 he did his doctorate at the ETH Zurich under Otto Rudolf Salvisberg . Karl Moser and Hans Poelzig led him on the way to modern building and were his first role models, while ORSalvisberg was rejected by him and called "usufructuary and wimp".

Act

Brechbühler was then briefly employed in Karl Moser's office, after which he worked in Paris at Le Corbusier for seven months. His time with the great master shaped him for his whole life. After returning to Switzerland, he worked for Albert Zeyer in Lucerne for two years until the death of his father Fritz Brechbühler. The father's office had created numerous Art Nouveau buildings for housing cooperatives in Bern. After the reorganization in 1933, Hans Brechbühler continued to run his studio. He realized his first, larger order with the warehouse of the Samen Vatter company .

He became known as a modern representative of the New Building in the spirit of Le Corbusier through his commercial school buildings in Bern on Lorrainestrasse. His competition project was carried out from 1937 to 1939. Here Brechbühler applied Le Corbusier's ideas independently without copying them.

In the years that followed, his designs for single-family houses and commercial buildings were consistently sober and appropriate to the material. With that he mostly only reached 2nd place in the competitions.

In 1937 Brechbühler was accepted into the renowned CIAM and joined the Werkbund . In 1938 he became a member of the Association of Swiss Architects (BSA). Another school building could be realized in 1948–1952 with the primary school building Statthaltergut, where new knowledge, especially the lighting, was applied in a less spectacular way. The realization of his draft for the industrial school building on the Schänzlihalde, opposite his existing building, was denied and a competitor built the building according to different criteria. His most important contribution to the construction of the PTT high-rise in Ostermundigen was his planning of the floor plans and the room layout.

Teaching

In 1956, Brechbühler was appointed to the ETH Lausanne, where he worked as a design professor until 1970. During his entire career, he researched the calculation of the optimal tanning of buildings. With his method it became possible to determine the duration of the sun exposure and the casting of shadows, but he never published it, probably for fear of imitation. Although these calculations can now be made faster and easier with modern computer science, his fundamental considerations regarding the incidence of light remain important.

Through his teaching activities and his role model, he had a decisive influence on the next generation of architects. Four of the later founding members of Atelier 5 worked in his office between 1953 and 1955.

Honor

Hans Brechbühler was awarded an honorary doctorate for his life's work by the ETH Zurich in 1985 .

Buildings and designs

Selection of the most important works

  • 1932 competition for the construction of a new town house in Bern (not awarded)
  • 1934 Projects for single-family houses in the Eicholz area, Bern-Wabern (not carried out)
  • 1935 Warehouse complex with residential building for the Samen Vatter / Köniz company (built in 1935)
  • 1935–1939 Commercial school building competition in Bern (1st prize, executed 1937–1939)
  • 1937–1940 competitions and construction of single-family houses in Vallamand , Bern- Bümpliz and Thun
  • 1940–1941 Competition for the design of the northern bridgehead of the Lorraine Bridge , Bern (rejected)
  • 1943 Project for an intercontinental airport Switzerland, Bern- Utzenstorf (together with Arch. Max Jenni and Ing.- Büro W.Siegfried)
  • 1948 Competition Primary School Statthaltergut Bern-Bümpliz (1st prize, executed 1949–1951)
  • 1953 Office and laboratory building for the Swiss Red Cross , Bern Wankdorfstrasse 10
  • 1953–1955 Conversion of the Papritz large laundry, Bern
  • 1955–1961 Projects PTT Research and Experimental Station Ostermundigen (assistance in implementation)
  • 1958 Competition Rudolf Minger Memorial, Schüpfen (1st prize, executed in 1960)
  • 1964–1966 Competition industrial school Schänzlihalde, Bern (4th prize, further processing 1965–1966)
  • 1966–1980 Further projects for residential buildings
  • 1986 Project memorial for Le Corbusier on the Pouillerel, La Chaux-de-Fonds (not carried out)

literature

  • Ueli Zbinden: Hans Brechbühler 1907–1989. gta Verlag, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-85676-027-X .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dorothee Huber: Brechbühler, Hans. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  2. ↑ Hans Brechbühler. In: arch INFORM .
  3. ↑ Modernes Bauen in Bern, H. Adam, NZZ online
  4. ↑ “ Back then, Brechbühler was the only one in Bern who came into question if you wanted to work for a modern architect. “A. du Fresne, Brief Description of Own History . In: Werk, Bauen + Wohnen (Zurich) 67 (1980), issue 7/8: Atelier 5, pp. 20–22, here: 20, ( doi : 10.5169 / seals-51487 )

Web links

Commons : Hans Brechbühler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Brechbühler, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss architect
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Bern
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1989
Place of death Ittigen