The document discusses Expressionist architecture and provides details about the Einstein Tower designed by Erich Mendelsohn. Some key points: - Expressionist architecture developed in early 20th century Europe in parallel with Expressionist visual and performing arts, especially in Germany. It emphasized emotional effects through distorted forms, symbolic meanings over realism, and conceiving architecture as art. - The Einstein Tower in Potsdam (1921) was Mendelsohn's renowned first major work. Its complex shapes reflected artistic freedom and "functional dynamics." The tower isolated experiments from external light/temperature changes by thickening its base and using mirror systems to redirect light. - The tower merged opposing concepts through relating mass and motion to

1. THEORY OF DESIGN

2. EXPRESSIONISM INFLUENCE IN ARCHITECTURE
Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement that developed in Europe during
the first decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual and performing
arts that especially developed and dominated in Germany.
CHARACTERISTICS OF EXPRESSIONIST ARCHITECTURE
1. Distortion of form for an emotional effect.
2. Subordination of realism to symbolic .
3. Importance of concepts than pragmatic finished products
4. Often hybrid solutions, irreducible to a single concept.
5. Use of creative potential of artisan craftsmanship.
6. Conception of architecture as a work of art.

4. some of the buildings which are famous for expressionist architecture
GLASS PAVALION SYNDEY OPERA HOUSE

5. Example
Erich Mendelsohn
• born March 21, 1887
• Allenstein
• died Sept. 15, 1953
• San Francisco, Calif., U.S.
• German architect known initially for his Einstein Tower in Potsdam, a notable
example of German Expressionist architecture

6. EINSTEIN TOWER
• Architect -Erich Mendelsohn
• Location -Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
• Project Year -1921
.• The Einstein Tower, Potsdam, was Mendelsohn’s first major work and
continues to be his most renowned creation.
• This structure typifies his interest in an architecture of abstract, sculptural
expressionism.

7. CONCEPT
• The complexity of shapes that make up the tower reflects on the one hand, a
great sense of artistic freedom .
• Follows the ideas of Mendelsohn on what he called "functional dynamics“
• Continuing its forms modulate the light throughout the day by generating a
series of unique and original futuristic visions
SPACES
• The experiments being carried out in the tower needed a laboratory completely
isolated from the outside light and temperature changes in order to accurately
study the theories of Einstein on the bending of light to subject her to a
significant gravitational field.
• Hence the widening of the base of the building that achieve the objective
through the thickness of the walls and antechambers prior to the laboratory.
• To get the light captured by the telescope to the lab than were available a
system of mirrors at 45 degrees that reflected light from the top of the tower to
its base.
MATERIALS
• Built in brick and finished with a coating with the appearance of
concrete.

8. FORM
• Merged opposing concepts based on formal strategy of relating mass and motion to embody a
functional program inside the monument.
• The scale and materiality that attribute the iconoclastic quality to the tower are balanced by the
rhythmic composition of volumes that surround it.
• The arrangement of the curvilinear masses serves to excite a sense of movement within the heavy
formations.
• The arrangement and manner in which form would enclose the interior occupations became a
representation of and monument to the sciences of mass and motion
• By making the outter ‘shell’ of the building resemble a machinelike organism which was explored
from dynamic functionalism
SECTIONAL VIEW

11. The monumental countour of the Einstein Tower can be corellated with the
period of German nationalism that followed its construction