Walter Borchard
Walter Borchard (born December 31, 1887 in Stettin ; † October 1, 1948 in Berlin ) was a German architect .
life and work
After attending secondary school in Berlin, Walter Borchard began an apprenticeship as a mason, which he completed in 1905 with a journeyman's certificate. 1905–1907 he studied at the Berlin building trade school . In the early 1920s he worked in Paul Mebes' architecture office . In 1925 he founded his own architecture office in Potsdamer Strasse and became a member of the Bund Deutscher Architekten BDA eV
Borchard's architecture can be assigned to classical modernism. Early on he had turned to an unpretentiously simple and matter-of-fact architectural style . Typical for many of his residential buildings are glazed loggias with filigree rung routing.
Borchard initially designed residential complexes and housing developments for building cooperatives throughout Berlin. Almost twenty residential complexes have been documented by 1933. Some of them are under monument protection , including the Zeppelin houses in the Kissingenviertel on the Prenzlauer Promenade in Berlin-Pankow and a facility on Puderstraße in Berlin-Plänterwald .
The Zeppelin houses caused a sensation with their spectacular roof shell construction. The roofs consist of four centimeter thick cylindrical shells that were built using the Zeiss-Dywidag method . Borchard first used this novel process on the roofs of residential complexes.
Borchard designed a distinctive round corner for a residential building on Puderstrasse in Berlin-Plänterwald. Borchard had got to know such corner solutions as an employee in the architecture office of Paul Mebes, who designed the Nordsternhaus next to the Schöneberg town hall .
When residential construction largely came to a standstill from 1933 onwards, Borchard planned administrative buildings for the emerging aviation industry . At the end of the 1930s, Borchard was commissioned to build a new administration building for Bayerische nitrogen works AG in Berlin-Schöneberg , which was used and known as the RIAS radio house from 1948 to 1993 .
An avid photographer, Borchard left behind more than 12,000 black and white negatives that were discovered in the early 1990s. Between 1936 and 1946 he not only photographed political events and everyday scenes, but also documented the progress of the work on his construction sites in minute detail.
Buildings (selection)
- 1927–1929: Puderstraße settlement in Berlin-Plänterwald
- 1930–1931: Kissingenviertel (together with Georg Thoféhrn ), Zeppelin residential complex with open spaces on the Prenzlauer Promenade in Berlin-Pankow
- 1938–1941: RIAS radio house on Hans-Rosenthal-Platz in Berlin-Schöneberg (originally built as an administration building for Bayerische nitrogen works AG)
literature
- Adolf Stock: Walter Bochard - Architect of the DeutschlandRadio-Funkhaus , Publisher: DeutschlandRadio, 2004
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Zeppelin houses
- ↑ Puderstraße settlement
- ↑ Berlin - residential houses reform era and modernity. Accessed January 31, 2018 .
- ↑ RIAS broadcasting house
- ↑ Adolf Stock: Open Monument Day 2017 - The history of the RIAS building. September 21, 2017, accessed January 30, 2018 .
- ↑ Explore Walter Borchard's photos. Accessed January 31, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Borchard, Walter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German architect |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 31, 1887 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Szczecin |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 1, 1948 |
| Place of death | Berlin |