Majolica house
The majolica house was a popular exhibition and gastronomy pavilion in the Düsseldorf court garden . The building, named after the Viennese majolica house , was one of the main architectural works of Art Nouveau in Düsseldorf. The building erected in 1902 was demolished in 1926.
history
The pavilion was built for the Düsseldorf industrial and trade exhibition in 1902 as an exhibition pavilion for the Villeroy & Boch company in the western courtyard garden. After the exhibition ended, the pavilion became the property of the city of Düsseldorf. The building was first used as a “milk house” (for serving milk or other non-alcoholic soft drinks), then as a café. When the GeSoLei exhibition was conceived in 1925 , the planners around Wilhelm Kreis found the "Art Nouveau building with its flourishes and ornamentation" to be disturbing - not least because, in their eyes, it contradicted the GeSoLei concept as a contemporary, modern architecture exhibition. In its function as a café, the majolica house was very popular among the population, although artistic aspects hardly played a role. The pavilion was finally completely demolished overnight on February 9, 1926, to create a fait accompli. Who was specifically responsible for the demolition remained unclear at the time and could not be determined for a long time. In 1964, an engineer who had worked for the GeSoLei confessed to having assembled a construction team after a conspiratorial meeting in the Malkasten House and carried out the demolition in a night-and-fog operation.
Location and surroundings
Layout
description
The building was a "majolica work of art" in which a wide variety of ceramic techniques, especially colored glazed ceramics, based on designs by Anton Joseph Pleyer , were brought together. The building was covered inside and outside with colorful tiles, mosaics and reliefs.
Exterior
The main facade showed various forms of building ceramics from Villeroy & Boch, such as tiled and mosaic surfaces, reliefs and sculpted sculptures: “The main surfaces of the outer facades are then covered with white and colored, but mainly yellow glazed flakes. This creates a peculiar fish scale pattern, which has been used in this way for the first time ”.
The southern rear side showed three different facade styles - glass mosaic, majolica panels and building plastic. In the middle of the rear was a chimney bay, a windowless extension protruding like a risalit. The bay window ended in a segmented arched gable and a chimney towering above the building, which was placed at the rear. The chimney bay was decorated with remarkable lunette images in colored glass mosaic based on designs by Bruno Panitz. These showed pictorial representations of the navy: The picture on the left represented a harbor scene. The picture on the right showed several ships lurching on the moving sea. The bay window was flanked in the west by a wall with light-colored clay flakes and an ornamental frieze with a plastic framed window and a wall clad with majolica panels with two window axes, one of which was a blind window, in the east.
Interior
The walls of the main hall were decorated with majolica panels: “The walls of the main hall are about 50 cm high with light blue-gray panels. This is followed by panels with a somewhat restless print pattern in yellow, gray and green with a yellow-ivory-colored border at the end, on which the barrel vault of the ceiling is then built ”.
The entire barrel vault was decorated with a tile painting. It showed six huge rose bushes that formed into tree-like structures: “The same [ceiling] is divided into fields and shows a stylized tree motif on a gray-green background with blue-violet branches as decor, while the spaces between the leaves are filled with gold. Flower ornaments in red, resp. pink tones ”.
window
Interior
Main hall with barrel vault
Art historical significance
The building was one of the main architectural works of Art Nouveau in Düsseldorf, which was modeled on the Viennese majolica house :
“Considered in the architectural-historical context of the turn of the century, the majolica house, if it were still standing, would undoubtedly be one of the main architectural works of Art Nouveau today, which makes the loss all the more painful. In particular, the majolica house is based on the famous Viennese majolica house on Naschmarkt, which was built in 1898/99 according to plans by Otto Wagner. [...] In addition to these tiles, which experienced their heyday with Art Nouveau decors, especially at the turn of the century, the classic majolica tile with painting and tin glaze, to which the Viennese majolica house owes its name, continued to hold its own. The little Düsseldorf majolica house, which was built only a little later, is based on the type of facade completely clad with tiles, but also combines other ceramic techniques such as high relief and terracotta sculpture on the building. "
“In addition, Art Nouveau in Düsseldorf was mainly reflected in new residential buildings at the turn of the century, although pure forms are rare - they are often historicist buildings whose conventional architecture was combined with modern Art Nouveau ornamentation. The majolica house [...] would be by far the most elaborate and ornamented Art Nouveau exhibit in Düsseldorf today. "
literature
- Michael Weisser: Art Nouveau tiles and tiles. Munster 1980.
- Michael Weisser: Art Nouveau tiles. Frankfurt am Main 1983.
- Melanie Florin: The majolica house by Villeroy & Boch in the Düsseldorf court garden. Grupello, Düsseldorf 2006, ISBN 3-89978-057-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Brockerhoff: Düsseldorf as it was. #. Edition, Droste, Düsseldorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-7700-1277-0 , p. 96f.
- ^ Rüdiger Hoff: "A sensational find" in Düsseldorf . Article from June 2, 2014 in the derwesten.de portal , accessed on June 2, 2014
- ↑ Michael Brockerhoff: Traces of the majolica house discovered . Article from June 3, 2014 in the portal rp-online.de , accessed on June 3, 2014
- ↑ Florin, p. 90.
- ↑ Florin, p. 34f.
- ↑ Florin, p. 38
- ↑ a b c The trade and industry exhibition in Düsseldorf. In: lecture hall , magazine for the ceramic, glass and related industries, year 35, volume 34, Coburg 1902, p. 1291.
- ↑ Florin, pp. 45f.
- ↑ Florin, p. 57
- ↑ Florin, p. 58
- ↑ Florin, p. 11f.
- ↑ Florin, p. 100.
Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 58.3 " N , 6 ° 46 ′ 23.8" E