Oswald Mathias Ungers

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Gatehouse of the Frankfurt Fair

Oswald Mathias Ungers (born July 12, 1926 in Kaisersesch , † September 30, 2007 in Cologne ) was a German architect and architectural theorist . For the competition architects, who are also known outside of Germany, the initials OMU of his name stood in architectural circles and publications as a polarizing “trademark” for the uncompromising nature of his architecture. He felt obliged to design principles that he derived from the past, developed further and sought to implement in his buildings beyond all fashions and schools as, in his view, a contemporary expression of general human order.

Life

The post office clerk's son Oswald Mathias Ungers attended school in Mayen from 1932 to 1945 . Shortly before the end of World War II , Ungers was drafted into the military and taken prisoner at the end of the war. After his release he graduated from the Megina-Gymnasium in 1946 and studied architecture with Egon Eiermann from 1947 to 1950 at the Technical University of Karlsruhe . After graduating, Ungers initially worked with Helmut Goldschmidt and then founded architectural offices in Cologne (1950), Berlin (1964), Frankfurt am Main (1974) and Karlsruhe (1983).

Ungers was a professor at the Technical University of Berlin and there from 1965 to 1967 Dean of the Faculty of Architecture. Before the student unrest of the late 1960s, which was particularly noticeable in Berlin, he said goodbye to the USA for a decade . In 1967 he became a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca in the state of New York and its "Chairman of the Department of Architecture" from 1969 to 1975. At the same time he was professor at Harvard University in Cambridge (1973), the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) (1974–1975), the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (1979–1980) and the Düsseldorf Art Academy (1986–1990). Ungers was a member of the Academy of Arts (Berlin) .

Ungers was married to Liselotte Gabler . The marriage resulted in a son, Simon Ungers (1957-2006), who was himself a successful architect, and the daughters Sibylle (1960) and Sophie (1962).

Ungers died at the age of 81 of complications from pneumonia . He was buried on October 11, 2007 in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne .

Act

Galeria on the Frankfurt exhibition grounds
Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum , Cologne
Hamburger Kunsthalle : Gallery of the Present
Entrance to the Trier Kaiserthermen
Ungers building above the thermal baths at the Viehmarkt , Trier
Courtyard wing of Haus Bitz in Bachem (Frechen)
Housing complex on Lützowplatz in Berlin (demolished 2013)
Contrescarpe Center , 2006, Bremen
Villa Glashütte in Utscheid (Eifel), 1997

Ungers' buildings are characterized by strict geometric design grids. Basic design elements of his architecture are elementary forms such as square , circle or cube and sphere , which Ungers varied and transformed in his designs. This is also visible in the facade design . As an architecture theorist and university professor, Ungers developed what his critics called "quadratism" and his admirers called "German rationalism". He went back to the teaching of Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand , who in 1820 had published his pattern books with geometric archetypes for "any building". In his formal language, Ungers explicitly referred to elementary architectural means that were independent of contemporary tastes. Its historical models in the history of architecture come mainly from Roman-Greek antiquity . His work was therefore occasionally criticized as formalistic . In connection with its development on the Frankfurt Exhibition Center, there was often talk of a “new clarity”. Like hardly any other architect, Ungers has remained true to his chosen design language for decades. He was one of the leading theorists of the Second Modern Age .

Well-known students of Ungers are, among others, Max Dudler , Hans Kollhoff , Jo. Franzke , Christoph Mäckler , Rem Koolhaas , Jürgen Sawade and Eun Young Yi .

Ungers Archive for Architectural Science

Unger's Archive for Architectural Studies contains his architecture library, which he began building up in the 1950s, as well as the architect's entire artistic estate. The library focuses on architecture tracts , works on the creation and further development of perspective, and publications on color theory . The library contains, among other things, the first edition of Vitruvius' De Architectura Libri Decem from 1495 as well as rare editions such as the Staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar 1919–1923 and publications by the Russian avant-garde, for example Von Zwei Quadra by architect El Lissitzky . It is housed together with his estate in the library cube of Ungers' listed building at Belvederestrasse 60, Cologne-Müngersdorf, and is available to the academic public for research work.

Ungers' collection of architectural icons

Also part of the archive for architectural studies are the models of historical architectural icons , which the qualified designer and architectural model maker Bernd Grimm made in cooperation with the architect. Unger's goal was to create a "three-dimensional collection" of historically significant buildings. The models are made of white alabaster plaster and have a wooden substructure.

Some of the models in the architectural icon collection

1993: Parthenon, Athens, 447-438 BC Chr., 1:50 scale model
1995: Pantheon Rome , 118–128 AD, 1:50 scale model
2001: Castel del Monte by Friedrich II, Apulia , 1240–1250, model in 1:70 scale
2002: Cenotaph for Isaac Newton , 1784, architect: Étienne-Louis Boullée , 1: 400 scale model
2001: San Pietro in Montorio , Rome, 1502, architect: Donato Bramante , 1:15 scale model
2004: Mausoleum of Theodoric , Ravenna , circa 520 AD, 1:20 scale model

Memberships, awards and honors

Executed buildings (selection)

  • 1951: Apartment building, Cologne
  • 1951: clothes factory and residential building, Cologne
  • 1952–1953: Apartment building at Riehler Strasse 29–31, Cologne-Neustadt, together with Helmut Goldschmidt
  • 1953–1958: Institute for university entrance qualification, Oberhausen
  • 1956: Single-family house W, (Cologne) - Rodenkirchen
  • 1956: Student residence at Goldenfelsstrasse 19 (today the hygiene institute of the University of Cologne), Cologne-Lindenthal
  • 1957: Two-family house, Cologne
  • 1958: Own residential and office building at Belvederestraße 60 / Quadratherstraße 2, Cologne-Müngersdorf (expanded in 1989/90)
  • 1958–1959: Apartment building "H", Cologne-Dellbrück , Schilfweg 6
  • 1962: Single-family house Haus Wokan , Bad Homburg vor der Höhe
Villa Steimel in Hennef shortly before the demolition in 2017

Projects (selection)

Exhibitions

  • 1999: OM Ungers. Periods. Architecture. Context , Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (Cologne).
  • October 27, 2006 - January 7, 2007: Work exhibition with the title O. M. Ungers. The cosmos of architecture in the Neue Nationalgalerie zu Berlin
    In addition to a selection of his projects, examples from his collections (art, books, models) were shown.
  • June 23 to July 28, 2016: OM Ungers. First houses , architecture museum of the TU Berlin .
  • June 11th to July 5th, 2018: OM Ungers. Programmatic projects , architecture museum of the TU Berlin.

literature

Unger's publications

  • Oswald Mathias Ungers: Design with images, metaphors and analogies. Notes on a morphological concept. In: Architektur 1951–1990. Stuttgart 1991
    The theming of architecture. 1983, published by Technische Universität Dortmund and Walter A. Noebel . Niggli Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-7212-0698-2 .
  • Oswald Mathias Ungers: 10 chapters on architecture. A visual treatise. (Published on the occasion of the exhibition "OMUngers: Time Spaces - Architecture - Context") DuMont, 1999, ISBN 3-7701-5271-9 .

Books about the architect

  • Oswald Mathias Ungers. Architecture 1951–1990 , with a contribution by Fritz Neumeyer, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-421-03010-3 .
  • OM Ungers: A Comprehensive Bibliography 1953–1995 . Interalia / Design Books, Oxford, OH 1996, ISBN 0-9630969-5-8 .
  • Andres Lepik (Ed.): OM Ungers. Architecture cosmos. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 2006 and Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, ISBN 978-3-7757-1820-2 .
  • Martin Kieren: Oswald Mathias Ungers. Artemis, Zurich / Munich / London 1994, ISBN 3-7608-8144-0 .
  • Anja Sieber-Albers, Martin Kieren (ed.): Perspectives. Reflections on the work of OMUngers, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden (Vieweg), 1999.
  • Kenneth Frampton (preface); Gerardo Brown-Manrique (Introduction): OM Ungers: Work in Progress 1976–1980 . Exhibition catalog No. 6, IAUS. Rizzoli, New York 1981.
  • The architecture magazine ARCH + , in cooperation with the Ungers Archive for Architectural Science (UAA) , published the "Berlin Lectures" from 1964–65 in ARCH + 179 / July 2006 for the first time (special edition for the 80th birthday of Oswald Mathias Ungers, edited by Nikolaus Kuhnert , Anh-Linh Ngo, Stephan Becker, Martin Luce, Gregor Harbusch); ARCH + Verlag, Aachen 2006. After the magazine was out of print shortly after it was published, ARCH + reissued the issue in December 2010: Online , ISBN 978-3-931435-08-0 .
  • As a supplementary collection of works, ARCH + 181 Lern von OM Ungers appeared . It provides an overview of OM Unger's practical and creative teaching approach, which is complementary to the lectures, and which found expression in countless projects and above all in the “Publications on Architecture”.
  • Jasper Cepl: Oswald Mathias Ungers - An Intellectual Biography . Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-86560-158-2 .

Web links

Commons : Oswald Mathias Ungers  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Architect Oswald Ungers died" Obituary on Spiegel Online , October 4, 2007.
  2. ↑ a b portrait of OM Ungers with list of works ; Retrieved October 29, 2009.
  3. ↑ Sober obituary in: The Times , October 8, 2007.
  4. ↑ burial place. In: knerger.de. Retrieved July 27, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Dieter Bartetzko: Prince of the square . In: FAZ , October 4, 2007 (obituary).
  6. ↑ The UAA. In: www.ungersarchiv.de. Retrieved June 20, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Eva Zimmermann: Grimm's plaster models . In: Architectural Digest (Ed.): Architectural Digest: Best of Germany . New York October 2008, p. 68 .
  8. ↑ a b c d e f architectural icons. In: www.ungersarchiv.de. Retrieved June 20, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Rainer Wolff: The little house. Georg DW Callwey, Munich 1959.
  10. ↑ Haus Belvederestrasse 60. In: ungersarchiv.de. Retrieved June 28, 2020 .
  11. ↑ The Villa Steimel is in ruins. In: general-anzeiger-bonn.de of March 16, 2017. However, a corner remained because a building official had interfered. The classification as a monument by the monument office of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia dragged on for too long because first an “exact court-proof reason” was requested.
  12. ^ Nikolaus Bernau: The question of power asked. In: Berliner Zeitung , March 23, 2017, p. 21.
  13. ↑ Christian Schröder: City without measure: IBA buildings are being demolished - Tagesspiegel, Feb. 21, 2013.
  14. ^ Wolfgang Pehnt : Oswald Mathias Ungers - Haus Belvederestrasse 60, Cologne-Müngersdorf , Edition Axel Menges 2016, accessed on April 6, 2016
  15. ↑ frankfurt.de - Chronicle of the North End (accessed April 27, 2014)
  16. ↑ germany.info ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.germany.info
  17. ↑ Baukultur Eifel - parish hall of the local community 54675 Utscheid (1998) , accessed on April 6, 2016
  18. ↑ Ing.firma Grassl ( Memento from 1 June 2008 at the Internet Archive ) with details Hugo Preuss Bridge (accessed 21 November 2012)
  19. ↑ a b projects (selective). In: ungersarchiv.de. Retrieved June 28, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Masterplan Museum Island Projection Future. Retrieved June 28, 2020 .
  21. ↑ OM Ungers: Periods. Architecture. Context . Exhibition catalog Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in the Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle Cologne. Ed .: Anja Sieber-Albers. Cologne 1999.
  22. ↑ OM Ungers First Houses. 2016, accessed June 28, 2020 .
  23. ↑ OM Ungers Programmatic Projects. 2018, accessed June 28, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Ungers, Oswald Mathias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ungers, OM
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect and architectural theorist
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaisersesch
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 2007
Place of death Cologne