Konrad Wachsmann Biography
Konrad Wachsmann (Frankfurt Oder, 16 May 1901 – Los Angeles, 26 November 1980) was a German-born American architect. He first studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Berlin and later attended the Academy of Art in Berlin, where he was a student of Heinrich Tessenow. In 1923 he met Hans Poelzig in Berlin, who exerted considerable intellectual influence. In the period 1926-1929 he was considered the most expert architect in the design of wooden buildings in Europe. In 1930 he designed the wooden house for Albert Einstein, near Caputh in Germany. In October 1930, the Berlin publisher Ernst Wasmuth published his book Holzhausbau, now considered a classic for the design of wooden buildings. In 1932 he was nominated for the prestigious "Rome Prize" organized by the Prussian Academy of Arts. On this occasion, before reaching Rome, he had the opportunity to visit the cities of Vicenza, Padua, Venice, Bologna, Siena and Assisi. After the trip to Italy, a troubled and turbulent period began, which saw him wandering and taking refuge in France and Italy. Wachsmann managed to save himself from the Gestapo, who was pursuing him, thanks to the political refugee visa obtained in 1935 from the United States. Here he participated, together with Walter Gropius, in the foundation and management of the first semi-automatic industry for the prefabrication of semi-finished wooden elements for the construction industry: General Panel Corporation. Subsequently, after moving to Illinois, his fruitful collaboration with Walter Gropius strengthened. In 1950 he became a professor of design and director of the Institute of Technology in Chicago. He was one of the pioneers of prefabrication, with numerous experiments under his belt to find the basic module suitable for all construction needs, so that it could be configured in combination with other modules and composed of materials that facilitate mass production. According to his style, the architect's task, which he calls universal planner, is precisely to coordinate, plan and insert the basic modules into each other for the composition of buildings, combining the appropriate technology in the construction of the modules themselves with creativity in inserting and composing them. In the continuous search for new shapes in space and new dimensions for his basic modules, Wachsmann can be compared to the engineer and architect Buckminster Fuller, who successfully used tubular structures of various kinds, among which the most famous is the fullerene which bears his name.
