Neo-historicism

Neo-historicism describes a design form of contemporary and historical architecture in which modern buildings are designed in the forms of previous stylistic epochs.

history

Time and again there have been trends in architectural history that made use of styles from bygone eras. This was the case with historicism in the long 19th century . Beyond the end of actual historicism, neo-historical movements emerged in the 20th century, such as neoclassicism and socialist classicism .

Historicism and neo-historicism were preceded by immense losses of traditional building stock, in the 19th century due to industrialization , in the 20th century due to the Second World War and the following epoch, which did not appreciate historical building stock. Historicism, like neo-historicism, emerged as a reaction to a feeling of loss.

Neo-historicism was also directed against widespread brutalism (around 1960 to 1980), along with postmodernism and new urbanism . At the same time, monument protection and monument preservation also took off . Since the 1970s, buildings and entire city districts have been built again, which should be committed to the ideal of the European city , revive historical building forms and seek to develop them further. It is a part of retro culture that is found in numerous other branches of culture, including everyday culture.

term

The term neo-historicism is criticized because it has little to do with the “classical” historicism of the 19th century, which was much more oriented towards the results of research in the history of architecture. The term postmodern historicism was proposed.

shape

One focus of neo-historicism are inner-city buildings, which create a supposedly historical cityscape through historicizing construction and thus bring back an urban look that was previously lost. The aim is to create a "historical" atmosphere. The reduction to the atmospheric makes it possible to achieve a historical impression without making any significant compromises in terms of usage options and technical comfort of the building.

At the University of Notre Dame in the USA there is the School of Architecture, an architecture faculty that is dedicated to teaching traditional, premodern architecture and urban planning (including in the sense of New Urbanism) and helping to develop neo-historicism. It awards the highly endowed Driehaus Architecture Prize once a year . The London Foundation for Building Community of Prince Charles drives the global academic discourse also progressing in this area. Various architects and architectural offices also teach their employees the formal language of historicism and earlier stylistic epochs and let them implement accordingly inspired designs. B. Hans Kollhoff , Patzschke Architects Berlin , Léon Krier , Demetri Porphyrios , Andrés Duany , Michael Graves , Pier Carlo Bontempi and Quinlan Terry .

Demarcation

It does not count towards neo-historicism

• Traditional architecture , Heimatstil or Heimatschutz architecture ,
• the reconstruction as "a scientifically based and faithful rebuilding of destroyed buildings in material, construction and internal disposition, at the place of origin and using the original substance",
• the restoration as the restoration of an existing historical building.

Examples

Examples of neo-historical architecture:

• Hotel Adlon Kempinski , Berlin
• Berlin Palace
• Braunschweig Castle (with the exception of the extensive reconstruction of the facade of the Ottmer building using the original stones that have been preserved)
• Cathedral of Brentwood , England, 1991
• Neumarkt quarters I to VIII in Dresden
• Reconstruction of Elbląg (Elblag), Poland
• Dom-Römer-Project , Frankfurt am Main (20 new buildings and 15 reconstructions of historic old town houses)
• Hildesheim market square , with the exception of the bone carving office , which is a reconstruction.
• St. Nikolai on the Water in Kiev , Ukraine, 2004
• Reconstruction of Kołobrzeg (Kolberg), Poland
• Market (Mainz)
• Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville , USA, 2006
• Chapel of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula , USA, 2009
• Nikolaiviertel , Berlin
• Reconstruction of Szczecin (Stettin), Poland
• Josefskapelle in Unterammergau , Germany, 1991

literature

• Katharina Brichetti: The healing promise of postmodern historicism. Historicism and Postmodern Historicism in Comparison . In: INSITU. Zeitschrift für Architekturgeschichte 1 (2/2009), pp. 135–142.
• Eva vom Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism or “Neo-Historicism” - An attempt to characterize contemporary historicizing architecture . In: INSITU. Zeitschrift für Architekturgeschichte 9 (2/2017), pp. 271–282

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 271.
2. ↑ Brichetti: The Healing Promise , p. 136.
3. ^ Brichetti: The Healing Promise , p. 137.
4. ↑ European city
5. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 271.
6. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 275.
7. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 280f.
8. ↑ Brichetti: The Healing Promise , p. 136.
9. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 275.
10. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 278.
11. ^ School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame "Twenty years ago the curriculum was reformed to focus on traditional and classical architecture and urbanism."
12. ↑ Driehaus Architecture Prize (English)
13. ↑ Brichetti: The Healing Promise , p. 136.
14. ^ Prince's Foundation for Building Community in London, a foundation for new historicizing architecture
15. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 272.
16. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 272.
17. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 276.
18. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 276.
19. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 276.
20. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 276.
21. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 276.
22. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 275.
23. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 275.
24. ↑ Engelberg-Dočkal: Historicism , p. 276.