Karl Kohn (architect)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The architect Karl Kohn. According to Güllendi-Cimprichová, the Hotel Ibarra in the background is also one of Kohn's buildings in Ecuador.

Karl Kohn (born October 21, 1894 in Prague , † 1979 in Quito ) was a Czech-Ecuadorian architect and painter. He was born during the Austro-Hungarian Empire and achieved his first professional success in the 1920s in Czechoslovakia, which became independent in 1918 . After the occupation by the German Wehrmacht, the German-speaking Jew fled to South America together with many other family members in June 1939, where he was able to build a new life in Ecuador . He is considered a pioneer of modern Ecuadorian architecture. Karl Kohn was married to the actress, psychologist and psychotherapist Vera Kohn since 1934 .

Origin and education

Karl Kohn was born the third of seven children of the butcher Hugo Kohn and his wife Amelie. What the father's job already suggests and what Vera Kohn later felt as a confrontation with a culture that was foreign to her: The Kohns lived according to Jewish-Orthodox rules. According to the Slovak art historian Güllendi-Cimprichová, she belonged to the Jewish bourgeois milieu and enjoyed high social recognition.

One of Karl Kohn's older brothers, Otto Kohn , had completed a degree in architecture in 1913. It has not been proven whether that was the reason why Karl also took up a similar training course. It is also unclear where he received his training. Güllendi-Cimprichová writes that Karl Kohn graduated from "1914 the study of civil engineering at the Technical University in Reichenberg". This cannot have been the case, however, because the Technical University in Liberec was only founded in 1960 using facilities that were established in 1953. The statement made by Zdeněk Lukeš, who writes that both Kohn brothers were graduates of the German Technical University in Prague, is more likely to be correct .

At the same time as Karl Kohn's graduation, the First World War broke out and he joined the Austro-Hungarian military. He had made it to an artillery captain who had received several awards. After the end of the war, Karl Kohn studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague between 1918 and 1920 . Kohn attended Josef Gočár's master class here .

The years 1920 to 1939

From the end of his studies, Karl Kohn worked with his brother Otto. The cooperation was so close that "today it is no longer possible to precisely attribute the buildings". Güllendi-Cimprichová attests to the Kohn brothers "an undogmatic artistic attitude that was characterized by an objective, stylistically unbounded conception of the architectural task", while "the majority of German-speaking Jewish architects [..] would have tended towards white modernism", that is to say : to the Bauhaus style. The Kohn brothers' clients were "liberal-minded industrialists, entrepreneurs and aristocrats, for whom the Kohn brothers built apartment buildings in prominent locations in Prague city center or exclusive villas on the outskirts".

For the art historian Max Eisler , to whom Güllendi-Cimprichová's statement of the “stylistically unbound understanding of the architectural task” can be traced back, the floor plan is the determining element in the architecture of the Kohn brothers.

“It is led by them simply and conclusively. This is perhaps best shown by the renovations, where - in the workshops as well as in the residential buildings - the old, outdated disposition is converted directly into the new, high-performance one; this is also shown by the clever and clear combinations of commercial and residential buildings in of the city and finally the villas on its edge or out in the country. This is now a change, with which, of course, the attitude of the floor plan also changes. Because in the city it was important to manage the available space economically, here, in the country, it was important not to playfully abuse freedom. The two brothers keep their character. Even in the face of the vastness, they remain steadfast, controlled and collected. The house is opened in the most favorable points of the compass, there are the communal rooms on the ground floor, the single rooms upstairs, and there is also the network of paths in the garden, which, with its long and recaptured lines, never loses its feel for the natural landscape.
The essence of this architecture already appears to us from the ground plan: not interesting in a complicated way and not movable in an intimate way, but almost the opposite of all of this - sincere, calm and concise, so also internally one with that air-clean, light-filled spaciousness, which, as the rural, fresh characteristic of their temperament, accompanies the brothers' work everywhere, even in the elegant city apartment. "

Güllendi-Cimprichová distinguishes between two phases in the creative period of the two brothers preceding their emigration:

  • “The buildings erected up to the beginning of the 1930s are strongly committed to neo-baroque historicism .” Max Eisler attributes this to the clientele for whom the Kohn brothers worked. “The wealthy and educated bourgeoisie in this area lives particularly under the impression of the old, especially the baroque, building culture. How far this means an externality or even an atavism is not an issue here. For us it is only important to state at the moment that the two architects have a particularly open understanding of this requirement of their environment, the clear willingness to go along, but also the ability not to copy the traditional form, but to use new constructions and in a new spirit enliven. ”An example of this creative period of the two is the
    • Františ Janeček's villa in Týnec nad Sázavou
      The three-storey villa on a circular base belonging to the owner of the Jawa factory was called the “carousel”. The Kohns had also designed the interior furnishings for this villa, which, according to Eisler, “corresponded to the client's specifications even more precisely to his intentions. And most of it is on the same line, even the apartments in the townhouses and the interiors in the villas. Because even here the given disposition of the residents is not exhausted and driven off course by original arrogance, but always looking for the nice measure in which the citizens and artists can understand and unite. "
The villa of the Kohn brothers in Prague.
  • “From the beginning of the 1930s, both architects opposed the incessantly advancing rationalism with an opposing style concept, the so-called emotional functionalism” in the sense of Karel Honzík, who belongs to the Devětsil group . Eisler does not see this as a break with the previous architectural language, but as a sign of the “stylistic neutrality of the two brothers, which allows them to choose a design from case to case without the fundamental, constant properties of their work, their character and lose their point of view. Of course, as soon as the pressure of the convention and with it the cause for consideration expose, the modern features in the work of the brothers intensify - the simply sleek building cube, the flat roof, the thin wall, the lighter, airy nature, all this and more more then immediately speaks out with the obvious sense of well-being of liberation. "Examples of the Kohns' new architectural language are:
    • Villa Kohn in Prague
      Güllendi-Cimprichová describes the building from 1936 (according to Zdeněk Lukeš a pair of villas) as one of “the most important programmatic buildings of this creative period. [..] The building was erected at the highest point of a slope. The dynamic and voluminous structure dominates the large garden, which is divided into terraces and functionally divided into community garden, children's playground with pool and kitchen garden [..] The marble slabs create an organic transition from the garden to the marble floor of the winter garden and thus into the main living room of the Villa possible. [..] The deliberate merging of indoor and outdoor areas make the garden and building appear to the observer as an organic unit. [..] The seemingly ascetic building and the interior design are in a certain contrast. The representative character is expressed in the cloakroom by a cladding made of green opaxite. The furniture designed by the architects themselves is reminiscent of the tradition of the Viennese school with its conservative character, but at the same time is functionally designed with aesthetic sophistication. ”Zdeněk Lukeš refers primarily to the pent roof, the facade design and the railing in the stairwell.
      Historical photo of the Molochov block in Prague.
      View of the Molochov Block (around 2012)
    • Collaboration on the Molochov block on Prague's Letná plateau
      Güllendi-Cimprichová introduces the building under the term , which is rather uncommon in Germany, apartment house group , which "consisted of fourteen six-story houses built side by side, two of which were designed by Karl and Otto Kohn". The houses were originally supposed to be built separately by different architects and later united by a uniform facade. Finally, the block was completed between 1936 and 1938 by the architect Josef Havlíček (1899–1961), who designed the facade, together with the Kohn brothers.
      The name Molochov does not come from the builders, but probably goes back to the workers involved in the construction and means Moloch , which was intended to express a certain criticism of the monumentality of the building project. Güllendi-Cimprichová, on the other hand, emphasizes the “modernity of the building. The block is made of concrete, in one case even a steel frame construction with infill masonry. The apartments and individual rooms are insulated against noise and sound. Behind the uniform facade there are apartments of different sizes. The floor plans are characterized by the free design of the living spaces, which in turn are linked to the individual interior design. "

Of the aforementioned projects by the Kohn brothers, Zdeněk Lukeš only mentions the Kohn Villa in Prague, but agrees with the stylistic range of her works mentioned by Güllendi-Cimprichová and counts the business and office palaces in the center among her “most valuable buildings [..] from Prague ", but also high-quality apartment buildings, villas and weekend houses:

Rindler summer house in Staré Splavy
  • Brock department store, around 1928, Old Town Prague.
  • Palais Metro, around 1930, in Prague's old town.
  • Tenement house from 1932 on the corner of Ververkova and Holešovice, which impresses with its imposing corner balconies, is for Lukeš “a high quality example of functionalist architecture”.

Some of the built by brothers Kohn Cottages were in the to Doksy belonging Stare Splavy (formerly Thammühl) ( location ) at Mácha Lake . This also includes a "summer house of Mr. Kom. Council E. Rindler in Thammühl" built around 1927 in the style of functionalism.

The Kohn brothers themselves owned a summer house in Thammühl, but it was nowhere near as functional as the Rindler summer house. Across the street from their house there was the Villa Rut , a guest house that had been built by the Forman family. A close relationship developed between Anna Forman and Otto Kohn, from which director Miloš Forman emerged . Before he emigrated, Otto Kohn signed a contract for this house with the Forman family, who were supposed to maintain it. The villa was later confiscated.

The marriage to Vera Schiller

Two years before the completion of the Villa Kohn, Karl Kohn married Vera Schiller (1912–2012), who was eighteen years his junior and whom he had met in connection with a building project by her parents.

How much Karl Kohn's aesthetic feeling also determined his private life is shown by an event on the eve of the wedding, which Vera Kohn reports in her book, which is partly autobiographical.

“The night before the wedding, my groom had called me to ask what I would wear. 'The dress that was designed for me in the fashion salon and the hand-made Brussels lace veil that my grandmother kept for her first granddaughter,' I replied. From the other side of the phone cord came the voice of my future husband: 'I won't get married like this. I'm a modern architect, I don't take such bad taste. '"

Vera Kohn was to be confronted with the dominant behavior of her husband even more often in her further life, but the marriage lasted until Karl Kohn's death.

Vera Kohn reported for the first time in connection with her honeymoon that Karl Kohn was also active in painting. Güllendi-Cimprichová also goes into this and mentions that his pictures, which he signed with the pseudonym Karl Kagan, “are strongly influenced by Impressionism and figurative Cubism. They are characterized by expressiveness in color and formal clarity. In Prague he had a total of three solo exhibitions. The last one took place immediately before Kohn's emigration in January 1939 in the gallery of the Jewish gallery owner Bedich Feigl. "Apparently Kohn hoped to be able to take his pictures with him into exile, but a large number of them," 250 in total, were in Antwerp in 1939 confiscated by the Nazis. Your trace is lost in Germany. They are still considered lost today. "

emigration

With the occupation of Czech territory by German troops in March 1939 at the latest , many Jews realized that they no longer had a future in their homeland. Within the large Kohn family, 21 members decided to emigrate together, including the brothers Otto and Karl Kohn with their respective families.

The escape destination of Ecuador came into the focus of many Czech-Jewish families due to the arms deals between Czech companies and the state of Ecuador, and this in turn is said to have directly involved a previous client of the Kohn brothers Karl and Otto: Františ Janeček, whose villa they owned had been built, and not only the founder and owner of Jawa was -Motorradwerke but also in conjunction stand for Brno arms factory Zbrojovka Brno . As a result of the arms deals, Ecuador had debts with Zbrojovka Brno and therefore decided “to settle them in the context of an economic-humanitarian transfer. On February 2, 1939, an agreement was signed between Zbrojovka and the Ecuadorian government according to which the Czechoslovak Jewish emigrants were supposed to pay off their debts and in return were given visas for Argentina. Karl Kohn took part in this transfer. "

The departure destination Argentina was not pursued for unknown reasons; The 21 members of the Kohn family settled mostly in Ecuador, which was probably also due to the fact that another brother of Karl and Otto had already settled there earlier and, as Vera Kohn describes it, the desire prevailed to be together as a family stay.

New beginning in Ecuador

Karl Kohn seems to have been fascinated by Ecuador, where the Kohns arrived in the summer of 1939, as his wife writes.

“When we came to Ecuador, my husband was fascinated by the brown faces and he started to paint them on the main street in the middle of the day, at 38 degrees Celsius. Since the artists of the city saw him, in the evening the hotel room filled with men dressed in white, black hair, black eyes and black shoes. They feed us to celebrate our arrival. Abel Romero Castillo ran a taxi agency. The first night after we arrived in Guayaquil, he put us all in a car and took us 'to get to know Guayaquil'. "

Güllendi-Cimprichová even speaks of the fact that Karl Kohn organized an exhibition of his own pictures while still in Guayaquil. He exhibited “drawings and pictures from the boat trip from London to Valparaiso and gained great respect in the Ecuadorian art scene”.

Guayaquil was just a stopover. Karl Kohn settled in Quito out of consideration for his wife and unlike his brother Otto, who had been offered an architecture professorship in Cuenca . As a replacement for the lost professorship in Cuenca, he quickly received the offer to teach at the art academy in Quito, the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes . In 1940 he was appointed professor. Vera Kohn remembered Karl Kohn's day of class at the art college:

“I remember very well the first time he got home from work. He said that everyone was dressed in black, that the chairs had no backrests but only a wooden ring, that everything was very poor, but there was a 17-year-old young man with great talent: it was Oswaldo Guayasamín . My husband was very spirited and enthusiastic about his talent. He invited him home for dinner, showed him his pictures, the books by the Austrian painter Egon Schiele . I think he had a huge impact on Oswaldo's development. This friendship lasted two or three years, then they parted. The picture that Oswaldo took of my husband comes from this era, 1942. "

One year after his appointment, Karl Kohn “founded an architecture school based on the Prague model at the art academy and proposed the establishment of a chair for architectural drawing. For a country that did not have a center for higher architectural education until the Faculty of Architecture at the Universidad Central in Quito was founded in 1946, this was an important step on the way to strengthening architectural teaching. ”For Karina del Rocío Sánchez Salazar is Kohn “one of the pioneers in the introduction of modern ideas in architecture and industrial design in Ecuador”.

Karl Kohn's work between 1939 and 1979

Karl Kohn's work in Quito is part of a change that affected all of Ecuador in the 1930s, but primarily the capital Quito. The architects and town planners who came to the country as emigrants were not least responsible for shaping this change. In 1940, Karl Kohn joined the discussions about redesigning the cityscape of Quito and published an article on it in the daily newspaper El Commercio . At the same time, he drafted a concept for the redesign of the government and administrative center in Quito. Güllendi-Cimprichová sees this design, which was modified again in 1955 but not implemented, as an important "contribution to the discussion on the architectural debate in Ecuador" and Kohn himself, conveyed by his teacher Josef Gočár, in the urban planning tradition of Otto Wagner .

Another urban design by Karl Kohn, which was not implemented, was created in 1949 for the reconstruction of the houses for the city of Ambato, which was destroyed by the earthquake .

Thanks to his work in the university, Karl Kohn was also active as a consultant for the school construction department of the Ministry of Education.

Even if he did not seem to have been very successful with his urban planning designs, he quickly managed to become a sought-after architect, as Vera Kohn pointed out:

“Then my husband got a lot of work, not only as a professor of technical drawing at the art school, it was also announced that a European architect was there and many people commissioned plans. One of the first orders was for a property with five corners. [..] It belonged to Mrs. Laura Urrutia. It became a modern house, built in a colonial style. This house received very good reviews in the newspapers; the project was paid for with a plot of land on which a eucalyptus forest stood with a view of the city. When we started building a house here, my younger daughter Katya was born. My husband was trusting and with great joy he showed the world the beautiful view with the forest that bordered the road. One day the mayor came and to my surprise - the house was almost finished and we had planted twenty to thirty willows around it - it was confiscated on the pretext that the presidential palace was to be built there. "

Living room of Villa Kohn in Quito

About ten years later, in 1951, the Kohn family finally came to their house, which became known as Villa Schiller Kohn or the Vera Kohn Residence . For Güllendi-Cimprichová, the approximately 760 square meter house “represents the culmination of Kohn's efforts to transform European modern architecture. [..] The flowing border between outside and inside creates a spatial continuum through which nature becomes part of the architecture. " Your conclusion:

“The architecture of the Villa Schiller Kohn reveals the intense engagement of its builder with tradition and modernity. The terraced cubes of the building and the room plan clearly show the return to Adolf Loos . The erection of the chimney as a convergence point of the living area reveals Kohn's desire for a reconciliation between tradition and modernity. "

Vera Kohn wrote in her memoirs, first published in 2006, about Villa Kohn : “When the house in which I now live was finished, my husband invited many people so that they could see it as models. After the theater, I spent a whole year showing it and the furniture he had designed that was made in Prague. This furniture came to Quito from Europe via Buenos Aires. The house was inaugurated by President Carlos Plaza in 1952. "In 2018, Katya, the youngest Kohn daughter, spoke more sadly about her parents' house, which she deliberately called the" Bauhouse ":" The beautiful Bauhouse in Quito, mine in 1950 Father was built, had a clear and beautiful view of the Pichincha . Today there are several very tall buildings that surround it, and for a long time they hide this beautiful panorama from the sunlight. Half of the view is cut off by a building that reflects so brightly on sunny mornings that it is dazzling. I guess the title of all of this is 'progress'! Unfortunately."

No less impressive than the Villa Kohn was the Villa Neustaetter, completed in 1955, for the Jewish couple Hans and Gisella ("Gi") Neustaetter from Munich. In the book View of the Modern Architecture of Ecuador , this villa is described as paradigmatic for Karl Kohn's architectural work, and in it his passion for details is admired as an inseparable part of his architecture. On the website ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR it says about the Villa Neustaetter : “Karl Kohn uses some typical elements of his work in this house, which take appropriate account of the context: the logical and natural way of integrating oneself, the distribution of the areas the amount of light, the relationship between inside and outside between construction and nature, the materiality and spatial continuity without leaving a single corner without use, etc .; these elements make this house a work of modern architecture, but this is tempered by the organic note of its context. This project shows the sensitivity that the architect had when designing not only a project but also a way of life for those who would inhabit it. "

Güllendi-Cimprichová speaks of 105 buildings for which Karl Kohn was responsible. Many were made of reinforced concrete , but most of these buildings have since been demolished or adapted.

“The majority of the buildings Kohn carried out were private houses, which can be formally divided into two groups. The first includes structures with a strong presence of the local elements found in traditional Quito residential architecture. Kohn's first building belongs to this group, the house built in 1940 for the Urrutia family in Quito. The facade, executed in traditional vocabulary, harmonizes with the surroundings and respects the genius loci of the city. The second group includes villas, which are characterized by rectangular cubic structures, straight lines and flat roofs. At Kohn, the window takes on the function of a connection point between the house and its surroundings. "

M. Augusta Hermida refers to a few selected further examples of Karl Kohn's work without going into detail (including the Villa Kohn ):

  • 1945: Casa Speck
  • 1948: Casa Tosi, Guayaquil. The Casa Tosi was a department store that was closed, 2014.
  • 1948 Casa en la calle 18 de septiembre
The 1954 established Banco de Descuento in Guayaquil
  • 1954: Banco de Descuento, Guayaquil.
    “The work is a perfect symbiosis between European rationalism and local traditions, which impressed the designer when he arrived in Ecuador. The pillars of the facade create an architectural rhythm that evokes strength and power. The mural made of metal with the design of the architect and painter Karl Khon reflects the images of the creative work of industry and trade in a free and peaceful society. ”In
    2018 the bank building was reopened for a new use: It now houses the library of University of the Arts ( Universidad de las Artes ) of Guayaquil. According to Delia Klingman, the architect responsible for the new interior design, the main challenge was to upgrade the original Kohn architecture and create a respectful work that pays tribute to the great architect and his quality of work. The design takes up the original architecture and at the same time creates a contemporary character that meets the needs of a university library.

Via the website ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR , which was created in collaboration with Katya Kohn and the architectural historian Shayarina Monard (see web links ), a large number of other works by Karl Kohn are made accessible in addition to the above-mentioned examples of the villas Kohn and Neustaetter:

  • Casa Sr. General Gómez de la Torre
    “Kohn's compositions are complex and his references varied, as can be seen in this residential architecture, which corresponds to the rustic, folk and neo-colonial taste of his client, without neglecting the principles of modernity and functionalism Interpretation is connected with the purism of Adolf Loos and the naturalism of Art Nouveau . "
  • Banco del Pichincha - Anteproyecto
    This unrealized ("Anteproyecto") but well documented project is one for a bank building from the mid-1960s. “This building impresses with its modern style, with clear and pure forms. Outside, the pyramid-shaped windows stand out, similar to loopholes, which give the facade a certain movement and versatility (in the style of Marcel Breuer ). [..] In general, it is a building that clearly shows Kohn's handwriting in both dense and pure lines. As in the Neustätterhaus, the distinctive functionalist tendency of the author and the almost fluid continuity of his rooms coexist here. "
  • Edificio Banco del Pichincha - Anteproyecto
    This is also an unrealized design. But: “Even in such a proposal for a company, Kohn does not forget to humanize spaces. Although his work falls into the currents of European rationalism and functionalism, he does not abandon the naturalism of Art Nouveau or a certain formalism of academic architecture. This preliminary project, whose legacy only exists in schematic levels, shows a versatile Kohn in the design of various building types. He does not limit himself to experimenting with cubic purism, glass skins or a rigid rationalism. If we look at his extensive work, including the unbuilt one, we can see that he is not one of the architects who draw variations on the same building. Kohn plays with all the parameters of his profession: scale, typology, shape, materiality, structure, relationships between inside and outside, program ... [..] His obsession with integrating nature into architecture comes from the introduction of various terraces as well Indoor gardens expressed on different levels, all in one large see-through space. From a programmatic point of view, it introduces an atypical phenomenon: it dedicates the penultimate floor entirely to employees. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why his project was not selected: Even today, as little as possible is invested in the space for the employees. "
  • Edificio Santa Prisca Jaramillo Lozano. There are only draft drawings for this building.
  • Edificio Vivienda Colectiva
    This is a draft for a tenement house with three floors, which is designed for families with a maximum of three people. the client is unknown. “The presence of balconies and external staircases creates a clear relationship between architecture and the environment. The "V" -shaped balconies break the rectangular geometry on which the budget restrictions of the work are based, give the facade a special character and again emphasize the connection to the environment. "
  • Casa para el Sr. Ing.Walter Seligman
    Walter Seligman could have been an urban planner who was involved in the development of the Quito district of Santo Domingo in the 1940s. The house planned by Karl Kohn and built in 1967 stood on a plot of land with a slight incline. “In the 1960s, the project was perfectly adapted to the location, which maintained a close relationship with the landscape and drew attention to the slopes of Pichincha. The context of the residence's location has been lost over time due to the city's vertical growth, which did not exist at the time. [..] In this way, this residence is a clear example of functional and aesthetic architecture, which aims to meet the needs of the residents through the harmonious integration of the rooms and the natural landscape surrounding them. "
  • Casa para Jorge Garcés, El Tingo
    The house is presented as a modest country house for a small family, but still has the typical Kohn characteristics, such as the important connection between indoor and outdoor spaces. "The style of Karl Kohn [..] shows the architect's tendency to appropriate every room and to let a little of himself flow into the details and the way in which he creates places for people."
  • Edificio Cadena Arteaga
    The Cadena Arteaga building is one of Karl Kohn's never-before-seen designs. It was intended for mixed use: "The first two floors are offices and the next floors are apartments. The building as a whole clearly shows a modernist attitude, with a horizontal base created by the business premises. The apartments define the verticality of this Elements to finally complete with a garden terrace.
  • Casa de Campo Cadena Arteaga
    Compared to many of the other objects by Karl Kohn presented here, this casa is a comparatively modest building. “It is a house with limited spaces, inexpensive, easy to build, comfortable and functional; it has a kitchen, a dining room, a master bedroom, a living room, a small studio and a bathroom. [..] The main characteristic of this architect is recognized: He distributed the space in the right amount, without neglecting the materiality, aesthetics and functionality. [..] This choice of materials suggests that the house was very economical, the space and budget restrictions of which, as Kohn makes clear, do not stand in the way of high-quality architecture: the room opens up to the surroundings and the view Kitchen window allows sufficient illumination of the house. Bookcases also play a role in the room. "
  • Residencia de Doña Laura Viuda de Freile
    This residence would have been much more representative than the previously sketched country house, but it was never realized. So it remains the task of this design to finally show the key points of Kohn's architecture: “Karl Kohn has a fascination for nature and wants it to penetrate the built object. It also invades nature so there is a connection between the two. Small details such as green terraces or pergolas with hanging gardens underline the idea that nature is present. He plays a game of the private with the public and connects them through a hall. It also gives every room in the house a certain amount of privacy, which it also compensates for with large windows that connect the inside with the outside of the house. "

Karl and Vera Kohn

Vera Kohn had a serious crisis in the mid-1950s as an actress and as the wife of Karl Kohn, whose dominance in all areas of life she often emphasized in her book. The following quote, which relates to the period around 1956/57, shows how much this was connected with her husband's work.

“I became my husband's worst secretary and manager of the buildings. In one year he had more than thirty buildings in order. He drew with great ease and also worked at night. He liked to have me around when he was working, and when I wanted to go away to do a job or do something, he said to me, 'Sit by my side, nothing more. I am working.' I didn't know anything about the femme inspiratrice , the woman who inspires by her presence. I served so that it could be realized. My husband needed my feminine presence to be creative, and that had many benefits. But since I absolutely did not understand my situation, I lost my energy without even knowing it. Sometimes I would get into the car alone without knowing why: I did it as a way to recharge my batteries. Then I couldn't do anything other than be there. I lost my energy in contact with a much stronger personality. "

In 1957 Vera Kohn told her husband that she wanted to leave. She put this decision into practice, which led to a four-year stay in Europe, mostly spent with therapy and therapeutic training with Karlfried Dürckheim and Maria Hippius in the Black Forest.

During these years the connection between Karl and Vera Kohn was never broken. Kohn visited his wife several times and they also traveled together. Karl Kohn doesn’t seem to have stayed in Ecuador the entire time, because Vera Kohn wrote: “My husband waited for me three years in Europe and Israel.” About what Karl Kohn did in Europe and in Israel gives there is no information.

The relationship between the two was on several occasions, but ultimately they found each other again and returned to Ecuador together in August 1961. Vera Kohn began studying psychology at the age of 49 and received her doctorate eight years later. There is no publicly available material about Karl Kohn's life since that time. He died in Quito in 1979. Obituaries and the exact date of his death are not recorded.

Honors & appreciations

Karl Kohn as a draftsman

In 1940 Karl Kohn received a "Prize from the Riverside Museum of the City of New York for his work" A un Oleo de Quito ", which has a figurative character and is mainly associated with the representation of the urban landscape."

1945: Ornato Prize from Casa Guerrero Pichincha (Quito)

In 1949 Karl Kohn was honored with a solo exhibition of his paintings and drawings at the Seattle Art Museum . This exhibition brought him his international breakthrough.

In 1951 Kohn received the architecture prize of the city of Quito, the Premio Ornato , for the Villa Schiller Kohn .

1954: Award for the best commercial building of the year.

1957: Casa Comercial Tosi Prize for Urban Development (Guayaquil)

"The MoMA curator visited Villa Kohn, which was about to be demolished and was documented as part of the research (some architecture professors supported the campaign to preserve the villa), and integrated it into the exhibition on South American Modernism 2015."

On November 29, 2018, the exhibition Arte en la PUCE: 4 Arquitectos Modernos took place in the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE) . Based on 100 original drawings, works by the architects Milton Barragán Dumet, Karl Kohn, Oswaldo Muñoz Mariño and Ovidio Wappenstein, who designed and built them between 1940 and 2000, were presented. With this exhibition, the PUCE Faculty of Architecture, Design and Art wanted to make a contribution to keeping the memory of these architects in Quito alive.

literature

  • Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová: Modern transfer Czechoslovakia - Ecuador .
  • Shayarina Monard: Karl Kohn arquitecto diseñador artista. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito 2010, ISBN 978-9978-77-168-6 .
  • Vera Schiller de Kohn: Initiatic Therapy. Towards the sacred core. Nordländer, Rütte 2012, ISBN 978-3-937845-32-6 (The Spanish edition under the title Terapia Iniciática. Hacia el núcleo sagrado was published in 2006).
  • Zdeněk Lukeš: Payment of the debt. German-speaking architects working in Prague 1900–1938. Fraktály Publishers, Prague 2002, ISBN 80-86627-05-5 .
  • Max Eisler: Architects Ing.Otto and Karl Kohn, Prague. Waldes Verlag, Bratislava 1931. In addition to a two-page foreword, the large-format book only contains photos and plans of buildings belonging to the Kohn brothers from their first decade of work.

Web links

  • Karl Kohn Biography . Well done presentation in Spanish with lots of pictures.
  • Grace Fiallos: Karl Kohn Biografia , April 13, 2011. Also in Spanish and with lots of images.
  • VIDA Y OBRA DE KARL KOHN , 2011
  • JJ Kohn: I've been fascinated by mathematics since I was a child , interview by Karel Hvíž Interviewala with JJ Kohn in Czech on December 4, 2009.
  • Vera Kohn Residence
  • Karl Kohn Kagan modelos 3D On this website the villas Speck (1945), Kohn (1950/51) and Neustaetter (1953–55) are shown in great detail as 3D models.
  • ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR . This website is an overview page about the work of Karl Kohn in Ecuador. As an introduction it says: “Thanks to the generosity of Katya Kohn, daughter of Karl and Vera Kohn, and Shayarina Monard, who share the archive with us, which was built up with meticulous care over three years, we were able to analyze twelve of the works and projects that make up the great legacy of the Czech-Ecuadorian architect Karl Kohn, one of the most important pioneers of modernism in Ecuador. "
  • At the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE) there is the LIPADA project , whose task is to preserve, research and disseminate materials that contribute to the preservation of memories of architecture, design and art in Ecuador in the 20th century . LIPADA is based on materials from private archives made available for this project. This also includes materials from Karl Kohn. On the website of the project, 78 Kohn architecture projects are listed and the associated documents are described. The plan documents themselves are not accessible in this way, the respective following pages only explain the documentary background: Fondo documental "Karl Kohn" .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Unless other sources are given, all biographical information comes from the essay by Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová: Modernetransfer Czechoslovakia - Ecuador (see literature ).
  2. ↑ Vera Schiller de Kohn: Initiatic therapy. Pp. 24-25.
  3. ↑ a b c Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová: Modern Transfer Czechoslovakia - Ecuador. pdf page 1
  4. ↑ a b c Zdeněk Lukeš: Payment of the debt. P. 88.
  5. ↑ VIDA Y OBRA DE KARL KOHN , see web links
  6. ^ A b c d Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová: Modern Transfer Czechoslovakia - Ecuador. pdf page 2. In Germany, the term white modern is more associated with the White City in Tel Aviv or as a criticism of the Bauhaus style. (see: Five points about a new architecture , last paragraph)
  7. ↑ a b c d Max Eisler: Architects Ing. Otto and Karl Kohn, Prague , foreword
  8. ↑ villa of Františ Janeček . The Czech language website contains several photos of the villa.
  9. ↑ a b c Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová: Modern Transfer Czechoslovakia - Ecuador. pdf page 3–4
  10. ^ Zdeněk Lukeš: Settling the debt. Pp. 88-94.
  11. ↑ The History of the Molokhov Block (in Czech)
  12. ↑ See the article in the Czech-language WIKIPEDIA: Molochov
  13. ^ Max Eisler: Architects Ing. Otto and Karl Kohn
  14. ↑ Roš Chodes (Journal of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic ) , issue 6/2017, p. 15
  15. ↑ Tajemství režiséra Miloše Formana (The Secret of the director Milos Forman) , February 15 of 2002.
  16. ↑ Vera Schiller de Kohn: Initiatic Therapy , p. 25
  17. ^ A b c d Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová: Modern Transfer Czechoslovakia - Ecuador. pdf page 5.
  18. ↑ Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová: Modern Transfer Czechoslovakia - Ecuador. pdf page 10, note 13. The website VIDA Y OBRA DE KARL KOHN (see web links ) even mentions 317 confiscated works.
  19. ↑ Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová: Modern Transfer Czechoslovakia - Ecuador. pdf page 5. Whether he was also the owner of this arms factory, as Güllendi-Cimprichová writes, cannot be verified. On many Czech-language websites, such as the Vybudování československého moderního zbrojního průmyslu (Building the modern Czechoslovak armaments industry) , reference is made to its close connection to Zbrojovka Brno until around 1927, but it remains unclear whether and in what form this will be after the establishment the Jawa persisted.
  20. ↑ Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová: Modern Transfer Czechoslovakia - Ecuador. pdf page 5. Karl Kohn's nephew, Joseph Kohn , the son of Otto Kohn, largely confirms this, but does not mention any single company that is said to have been involved in this deal. (JJ Kohn: I've been fascinated by mathematics since I was a child , see web links )
  21. ↑ Vera Schiller de Kohn: Initiatic Therapy , pp. 31–32
  22. ↑ JJ Kohn: Mathematics has fascinated me since I was a child. see web links
  23. ↑ a b KARINA DEL ROCÍO SÁNCHEZ SALAZAR: 4 MUJERES ARTISTAS, PROPUESTAS ARTÍSTICAS EN DISENSO EN EL ECUADOR DE 1930 A 1960 , Master's thesis at the UNIVERSIDAD CENTRAL DEL ECUADOR, FACULTAD DE ARTES, INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIÓN, Y POSGRADO, March 2016 103-104. According to Güllendi-Cimprichová (pdf page 5), the appointment took place in December 1939.
  24. ↑ Vera Schiller de Kohn: Initiatic Therapy , pp. 34–35
  25. ↑ Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová: Modern Transfer Czechoslovakia - Ecuador. pdf page 5–7
  26. ↑ ARQUITECTOS CHECOS. Su paso y huella en Ecuador (CZECH ARCHITECTS. Your path and your presence in Ecuador)
  27. ↑ Vera Schiller de Kohn: Initiati Therapy , p. 35. A picture of the Urrutia house can be found on the ARQUITECTOS CHECOS website. Su paso y huella in Ecuador
  28. ↑ a b Very clear picture material on this under Vera Kohn Residence . A detailed architectural-historical appraisal can also be found on the website ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR : CASA DE LA SEÑORA VERA SCHILLER DE KOHN
  29. ↑ a b c d e Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová: Modern Transfer Czechoslovakia - Ecuador. pdf page 9
  30. ↑ Vera Schiller de Kohn: Initiatic therapy. P. 38.
  31. ↑ Contribution by Katya Kohn Bernasconi from February 4, 2018 to the contribution “Thoughts on“ Neighbors! ”“ On Cañar Chronicles. Life in the Andes of Ecuador
  32. ↑ a b M. Augusta Hermida: MIRADAS A LA ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN EL ECUADOR , Volume 2, pp. 24-33. The article is richly illustrated with photos and plan sketches. For the business and patronage of the Neustaetters, see: La Fundación Filarmónica Casa de la Música
  33. ↑ ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR : CASA NEUSTATTER . “In this casa Karl Kohn aplica varios elementos típicos de sus obras y que funcionan adecuadamente en respuesta al contexto: la forma lógica y natural de implantarse, la distribución de las áreas de acuerdo a la cantidad de luz, la relación interior exterior y entre construcción naturaleza, la materialidad, y la continuidad espacial sin dejar un solo rincón sin uso. Etc.; estos elementos hacen de esta casa una obra dentro de la arquitectura moderna pero suavizada con el toque orgánico que le otorga su contexto. En este proyecto se demuestra la sensibilidad que tuvo el arquitecto al diseñar no solo un proyecto sino una forma de vida para quienes lo habitarían. "
  34. ↑ See Karl Kohn Kagan modelos 3D ( web links )
  35. ↑ The only related information can be found on the Spanish-language website: Casa Tosi
  36. ↑ Hermida does not provide any information on the type of house or the location where the building was located.
  37. ↑ Descuento Bank in Guayaquil built in 1954 by Czech architect Karl Kohn Kagan . “The work is a perfect symbiosis between European rationalism and the local traditions that impressed the constructor when he arrived to Ecuador. The columns of the façade create an architectural rhythm that evokes strength and power. The mural crafted in metal with the design of architect and painter Karl Khon, reflect the images of the creative work of the industry, the commerce within a free and peaceful society. “There are two impressive images available on the website.
  38. ↑ La obra de Karl Kohn revive en Guayaquil , December 8, 2018. The article contains images that give an impression of the new interior design.
  39. ↑ ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR : CASA SR. GENERAL GÓMEZ DE LA TORRE . “Las composiciones de Kohn son complejas y sus referentes variados, como puede apreciarse en esta arquitectura doméstica que cumple con los gustos rústicos, vernáculos y neo-coloniales de su cliente; sin descuidar los principios de la modernidad y el funcionalismo, cuya interpretación se afilia simultáneamente con el purismo de Adolf Loos y el naturalismo del Art Nouveau. "
  40. ↑ ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR : BANCO DEL PICHINCHA - ANTEPROYECTO . “First edificio sobresale por su estilo moderno, de formas rectas y puras. Exteriormente los objetos que más se distinguen son sus ventanas de formas piramidales, similares a troneras, que dotan a la fachada de cierto movimiento y versatilidad (al estilo de Marcel Breuer). [..] In general, it is an edificio que deja ver claramente la firma de Kohn en lo simultáneamente denso y puro de sus líneas. Al igual que en la Casa Neustaetter, aquí conviven la marcada tendencia funcionalista del author, junto con la continuidad casi líquida de sus espacios. "
  41. ↑ ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR : ANTEPROYECTO EDIFICIO BANCO DEL PICHINCHA . "Incluso en una propuesta corporativa como esta, Kohn no olvida humanizar los espacios. Si bien su trabajo se encuadra dentro de las corrientes del racionalismo y el funcionalismo europeo, no abandona el naturalismo del Art Nouveau ni cierto formalismo de la arquitectura académica. Este anteproyecto, cuyo legado existe únicamente en planos esquemáticos, muestra un Kohn versátil a la hora de diseñar distintas tipologías de edificios. No se limita a explorar con el purismo cúbico, las pieles de cristal o un racionalismo rígido. Si se hace un recorrido por su extensa obra, incluida la no construida, se aprecia que no es de los arquitectos que dibujan variaciones del mismo edificio. Kohn juega con todos los parámetros del oficio que ejerce: la escala, la tipología, la forma, la materialidad, la estructura, las relaciones entre interior y exterior, el programa ... [..] His obsession with nature in architecture to integrate is expressed through the introduction of various terraces as well as interior gardens on different levels, all of which are located in a large transparent space. From a programmatic point of view, it introduces an atypical phenomenon: it dedicates the penultimate floor entirely to employees. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why his project was not selected: Even today, as little as possible is invested in the space for the employees. "
  42. ↑ ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR : EDIFICIO SANTA PRISCA JARAMILLO LOZANO
  43. ↑ ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR : EDIFICIO VIVIENDA COLECTIVA . “La presencia de balcones y gradas exteriores establecen una relación clara entre arquitectura y entorno. Los balcones en forma de “V” rompen la geometría rectangular that subyace en las restricciones presupuestarias de la obra, dando de esta manera un carácter particular a la fachada y enfatizando una vez más la conexión con el entorno. "
  44. ↑ Marilyn Cristina Trávez Ortiz: Remate de la calle 3 de julio con estructura urbano comercial en la ciudad de Santo Domingo , Quito, 2018, p. 13, and EL CUERPO DE BOMBEROS DE SANTO DOMINGO 1954–2016 , Quito, 2015, p. 17th
  45. ↑ ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR : CASA PARA EL SR. ING. WALTER SELIGMAN . “En los años 60 el proyecto se adaptaba perfectamente al lugar manteniendo una estrecha relación con el paisaje, manejando visuales hacia las laderas del Pichincha. The contexto de emplazamiento de la residencia se ha perdido a lo largo del tiempo, debido al crecimiento vertical de la urbe, que en aquella época no existía. [..] Es así como esta residencia es un claro ejemplo de arquitectura funcional y estética que busca satisfacer las necesidades de quienes la habitan, mediante la integración armoniosa de los espacios y el paisaje natural que la rodea. "
  46. ↑ ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR : CASA PARA JORGE GARCÉS, EL TINGO . "El estilo de Karl Kohn [..] muestra la tendencia del arquitecto a apropiarse de cada espacio dejando un poco de sí en los details y la manera cómo crea lugares para la gente."
  47. ↑ ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR : EDIFICIO CADENA ARTEAGA . “Las dos primeras plantas son de oficinas y los siguientes pisos son de vivienda. El edificio en conjunto muestra claramente una postura modernista, con una horizontalidad en su base, generada por los locales comerciales. Los apartamentos define the verticalidad de este elemento, para finalmente rematar con una terraza jardín. "
  48. ↑ ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR : CASA DE CAMPO CADENA ARTEAGA . “There is a casa de espacios reducidos, de bajo costo, fácil construcción, cómoda y funcional; cuenta con cocina, comedor, un cuarto principal, una sala, un pequeño estudio y un baño. [..] Se aprecia la característica principal de este arquitecto: distribuía el espacio en la medida justa sin descuidar la materialidad, la estética y la funcionalidad. [..] Esta selección de materiales denota que el diseño era para una casa muy económica, cuyas restricciones de espacio y presupuesto, como deja claro Kohn, no impiden lograr una arquitectura de calidad: la sala se abre al entorno y la vista, el ventanal de la cocina permite iluminar adecuadamente la casa. Incluso los anaqueles de libros juegan un papel dentro del espacio. "
  49. ↑ ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ECUADOR : RESIDENCIA DE DOÑA LAURA VIUDA DE FREILE . “Karl Kohn tiene una fascinación por la naturaleza y le gusta que penetre en el objeto construido. Así mismo, éste penetra a la naturaleza para que exista un vínculo entre ambos. Pequeños detalles como terrazas ajardinadas o pérgolas con jardines colgantes dan énfasis a la idea de que la naturaleza esté presente. El realiza un juego de lo privado con lo público, conectándolos por medio de un hall. También otorga un cierto grado de privacidad a cada espacio de la casa que al mismo tiempo elimina al colocar grandes ventanales que conectan el interior con el exterior de la casa. "
  50. ↑ Vera Schiller de Kohn: Initiatic therapy , p. 41
  51. ↑ Vera Schiller de Kohn: Initiatic therapy. P. 41.
  52. ↑ Vera Schiller de Kohn: Initiatic therapy. P. 45.
  53. ^ Grace Fiallos: Karl Kohn Biografia . Information about the Riverside Museum is only available on the English-language WIKIPEDIA website: Riverside Museum
  54. ↑ a b c Grace Fiallos: Karl Kohn Biografia (see web links )
  55. ↑ Zuzana Güllendi-Cimprichová: Modern Transfer Czechoslovakia - Ecuador. pdf page 10
  56. ↑ Arte en la PUCE: 4 Arquitectos Modernos . See also the richly illustrated website ARQUITECTOS CHECOS. Su paso y huella in Ecuador
  57. ↑ In the original: “Gracias a la generosidad de Katya Kohn, hija de Karl y Vera Kohn, y Shayarina Monard, quienes compartieron con nosotros el archivo levantado con meticuloso cuidado a lo largo de tres años, pudimos analizar doce de las obras y proyectos que conforman el vasto legado del arquitecto checo-ecuatoriano Karl Kohn, uno de los principales pioneros del Modernismo en Ecuador. "


personal data
SURNAME Kohn, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kagan, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech-Ecuadorian architect and painter
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH 1979
Place of death Quito