Stadthalle Oskara Kaufmanna w Zielonej Górze

• Autorzy: Opaska J.

Warianty tytułu

EN

The Stadthalle by Oskar Kaufmann in Zielona Góra

• Języki publikacji: PL

Abstrakty

EN

The Stadthalle in Zielona Góra is one of the few preserved works by Oskar Kaufmann (1873-1956), an architect who worked in Germany (1900-1933), Israel (1933-1939) and Hungary (1941-1956); the building has been only slightly altered by considerably later renovations. Oskar (Oscar, Oszkar) Kaufmann began his career in 1900 by opening up a private design and interior decoration studio in Berlin. He soon became an acclaimed architect and interior decorator, and subsequently as a designer of theatre and cinema buildings, large department stores, villas and luxury residences for Berlin bourgeoisie. Sporadically, he also designed industrial objects. Kaufmann became an unquestioned authority and initiator of theatre projects, and he almost enjoyed a monopoly among the architects of Berlin and Brandenburg (more than seventy projects and at least 37 realisations); his designs of cinemas halls were truly pioneering. In 1927 the town council of Zielona Góra (Grünberg), a town with slightly more than 25 000 inhabitants, proposed building a monumental municipal multi-purpose hall intended for theatre, cinema, mass-scale events and sessions of the town authorities, and a seat of the municipal savings bank. Buildings were opened in April 1931. The find version differed from the original project (fig. 7 and 3). The hall facade of the hall was deprived of the planned dynamic impact exerted by window frames, accentuated by the wall face, and the portico pillars together with a crowning cornice, all three-dimensional in contrast to the flat, two-dimensional wall-backdrop. The missing elements also included the expressive contrast between the horizontal and vertical composition of the architectural elements preceding the facade, and a landing with curving stairs underlining the rounded form of the central part of the main elevation and entrance. As a result, the implemented design considerably "softened" the facade, and the accent was transferred onto the evocation and accentuation of its gravity, monumentalism and monolithic qualities. An unrealised counter-project of the facade was prepared in January 1928 in the studio of the town architect (fig. 6). The form of the savings bank got an entirely new architectural appearance. Originally, the facade was to assume the form of a simple wall with a strip of four rectangular windows, and a similar, decoratively treated row of windows on the high ground floor whose stone frames, accentuated by the wall face, simultaneously fulfilled the function of pillars belonging to a window cornice running across the whole width of the facade; this was a distinctive reference to the composition of the portico in front of the hall's main entrance (fig. 7). The project contains a legible confrontation of vertical accents on the hall facade and the horizontal accents of the savings bank. The latter's facade refers harmoniously to that of the hall (fig. 10). The windows on both floors are placed deep inside the wall and do not disturb the plane; a projection, rounded at both ends, was installed in the very centre. The high ground floor was closed by means of a slim inter-storey cornice and decorated with a wide strip of rustical articulation. The whole building, similarly to the hall, was crowned with a cornice. Zielona Góra Stadthalle was the last large investment realised by Kaufmann during his German period (1900-1933). The formal measures of expression applied both for the interior and the facade stern from an evolution of the architect's oeuvre and a systematic adaptation of elements of new artistic and architectural currents. The realisation in question ends and summarises a certain creative stage, composed predominantly of a functional theatre building endowed with an individual, legible and contemporary architectural expression. In his later designs, O. Kaufmann referred to the experiences obtained during his German period, including those dating from his work on the Zielona Góra project.

Słowa kluczowe

PL

Kaufmann Oskar; budowle teatralne; Stadthalle; Zielona Góra

EN

Kaufmann Oskar; theatre buildings; Stadthalle; Zielona Góra

• Wydawca: Komitet Architektury i Urbanistyki PAN ; Politechnika Warszawska, Wydział Architektury
• Czasopismo: Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki
• Rocznik: 2002
• Tom: T. 47, z. 4
• Strony: 342--360
• Opis fizyczny: fot., rys.

Twórcy

autor

Opaska J.