Heinrich Hübsch – Aloys Hirt – Über griechische Architectur

Hübsch, Heinrich.

Über griechische Architectur. Zweite mit einer Vertheidigung gegen Herrn A. Hirt vermehrte Auflage. Two parts in one volume.

Heidelberg, Akademische Buchhandlung von J.C.B. Mohr 1824.

(8), 85; (2), IV, 35, (1)pp and 5 engraved plates.

26,5 x 20,5 cm. Later leather-backed binding, original covers pasted on.

EUR  1200

“Although one of Friedrich Weinbrenner’s best known pupils, Heinrich Hübsch of Weinheim (1795-1863), belongs to the foremost exponents of German Rundbogenstil architecture, his role in nineteenth-century architecture as well as the sources and artistic aims of his style have long been misunderstood. In his famous pamphlet “In what style should we build ?” Hübsch questioned the idealistic approach of classicist aesthetics and suggested a new, adaptable style evolving out of material and construction, the so-called Rundbogenstil. Scientific research has been done on Hübsch’s stimulating role in the architectural debate on style which occupied architects and theorists over several decades and ended without a distinct victory of the views of either the classicists, gothic revivalists, or the protagonists of a “hypothetical third style” (Frampton), the choice of the round arch architects.

While Hübsch has been interpreted as a theorist who coined the “theory” of the Rundbogenstil, less is known about the foundations, sources and aims of this stylistic concept as regards the architect’s theory and practice. His interest in both Italian medieval architecture and Greek Antiquity is demonstrated by his travel sketches, his “materialistic” approach to architecture shown by his important essay “On Greek architecture” (1822), from the publication of which a lively controversy with the archeologist and leading professor of architecture at the Bauakademie (Berlin), Aloys Hirt, did ensue.

” Silke Walther, “In welchem Style sollen wir bauen ?” – Studien zu den Schriften und Bauten des Architekten Heinrich Hübsch (1795-1863). Diss. Stuttgart 2004.

Covers and spine rubbed, spotted. Some slight browning or soiling of the title leaves and the final leaves, but inside generally in a very reasonable condition