Hans Hofmann (architect)

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Hans Hofmann (born April 8, 1897 in Zurich ; † December 25, 1957 there ) was a Swiss architect and professor at the ETH Zurich .

biography

Hans Hofmann, the son of a merchant, spent his childhood in Zurich. After graduating from secondary school in 1917, he began studying medicine at the university, which he broke off after a semester, and also studying at the arts and crafts school . 1918–1922 he studied architecture at the ETH with a diploma with Karl Moser , and spent a semester abroad with Paul Bonatz at the Technical University of Stuttgart . After an employment in Berlin (1922–1925) at Mebes & Emmerich , he opened an architecture office in Zurich in 1925. In 1928 he entered into a partnership with Adolf Kellermüller , the Kellermüller & Hofmann partnership in Winterthur lasted until 1941. From 1937 to 1939 he was chief architect of the Swiss National Exhibition 1939 in Zurich and was responsible for coordinating a good two dozen architectural offices.

In 1939 he became an honorary member of the Architectural Association London . The University of Zurich awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1940. In 1941 he was appointed professor of architecture and design at the ETH Zurich. As a result, he gave up the shared office with Kellermüller and concentrated on teaching; only at the end of the 1940s and then increasingly in the 1950s did he again have major construction projects.

plant

Period until World War II

The office of the two partners quickly developed a reputation in housing development, be it with the two Winterthur estates Talacker and Frauenfelderstrasse, be it with modern model houses such as the Eglisee residential colony on the occasion of the WOBA in Basel 1930 or the competition for the model houses in Zurich in 1929 (The Rotach houses were executed by Max Ernst Haefeli ). At the same time Hofmann also developed early in their own projects to specialists in exhibition architecture, the Swiss exhibition design at the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona in 1929 testifies. In addition to several other large national exhibitions, this activity culminated in his appointment as chief architect of the Swiss National Exhibition in 1939.

Selection of works

Hans Hofmann
  • Show houses on Wasserwerkstr. Zurich 1927 (competition 1st prize, not carried out)
  • Swiss branch of the PRESSA, Cologne 1928
  • Swiss department of the Exposició Internacional de Barcelona 1929
  • Gustav-Adolf-Gedächtniskirche , Schweinfurt 1929
  • Swiss section of the Liège World's Fair 1930
  • Swiss section of the Brussels World Exhibition 1935
  • Swiss National Exhibition , Zurich 1939. Chief architect and Höhenstrasse of the exhibition on the left bank
  • MUBA , exhibition structures for the Basel sample fair 1949–1954
  • Round courtyard hall of MUBA, Basel 1953–1954
  • Run-of-river power station , Birsfelden 1953–1954
  • Administration building of Aluminum-Industrie-Aktiengesellschaft, Zurich 1955–1956
  • Clubhouse of the Swiss Reinsurance Company, Zurich 1955–1957
  • Thomaskirche im Gut , Reformed Church, Zurich 1957–1961 (posthumous)
  • Swiss Embassy , Bangkok 1956–1961 (posthumous)
  • Swiss Embassy , New Delhi 1957–1963 (posthumous)
Kellermüller & Hofmann

literature

  • Bruno Maurer (Ed.): A Tropical House. The Embassy of Switzerland in New Delhi. gta Verlag, Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-85676-326-8 .
  • Christoph Luchsinger (Ed.): Hans Hofmann: From new building to new architecture. gta Verlag, Zurich 1985, ISBN 3-85676-024-5 .
  • Mirjam Brunner: Hofmann, Hans. In: Isabelle Rucki, Dorothee Huber (Hrsg.): Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland - 19./20. Century. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1998. ISBN 3-7643-5261-2 , pp. 272-273.
  • Erwin Burckhardt : Farewell to Professor Dr. hc Hans Hofmann . In: Heimatschutz . tape 53 , no. 1 , 1958, p. 24-25 ( e-periodica.ch ).
  • Albert Heinrich Steiner : Hans Hofmann . In: The work . tape 45 , no. 2 , 1958, p. 28 * –29 * ( e-periodica.ch ).
  • William Dunkel : Hans Hofmann in Memoriam . In: The work . tape 45 , no. 8 , 1958, pp. 269-274 ( e-periodica.ch ).
  • William Dunkel: Hans Hofmann . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 76 , no. 5 , 1958, pp. 71-72 ( e-periodica.ch ).
  • Ernst Zietzschmann: Professor Hans Hofmann . In: Building + Living . tape 12 , no. 5 , 1958, pp. 146 * ( e-periodica.ch ).

supporting documents

  1. ^ NN: The Swiss section of the international exhibition Barcelona 1929 . In: The work . tape 16 , no. 8 , 1929, pp. 344-349 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-15997 .
  2. ↑ The trade journal Werk dedicates almost the entire six-month issue to the exhibition: Das Werk . tape 26 , 5 to 11, 1939 ( e-periodica.ch ).
personal data
SURNAME Hofmann, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss architect and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1957
Place of death Zurich