Hugo Häring’s “Philosophy of Gestalt”: An Alternative Approach to Architectural Theory

This paper provides a long-overdue discussion of Häring’s “philosophy of gestalt” and its intellectual roots. I shall argue that his gestalt theory—alongside the notion of the“New Building” (Neues Bauen)—can be understood as an “alternative” approach to architectural design for its underlying holistic way of perceiving (vorstellungsarten)in contrast to the mechanical parallel. I shall further argue that Häring’s view towards building as “living organism” and his focus on the immediate experience of what is “happening” (geschehen) presented an architectural adoption of German romanticist tradition and, more specifically, Goethe’s Naturphilosophie and its reliance on “primal phenomenon” (urphänomen).

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.108.67

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978-1-944214-26-5