Bruno Taut, The Dissolution of Cities (1920)
A committed pacifist, Bruno Taut (1880-1934) believed that a new architecture would play a leading role in the creation of a more humane society. In accordance with the motto “Stone buildings make for stone hearts,” this image from The Dissolution of Cities [Die Auflösung der Städte], begun during World War I, called for the old urban centers to fall and make way for a new form of architecture that would bridge the divide between nature and the city. Searching for spiritual integrity though beauty, Taut envisioned humanity in an environment that coupled the dramatic, natural landscape of the Swiss Alps with man-made building technology. It was an organic vision of peace that stood in sharp contrast to the wholesale destruction of landscapes and lives brought about by the mechanized warfare of the First World War.
Source: Bruno Taut, Die Auflösung der Städte: oder die Erde, eine gute Wohnung, oder auch: Der Weg zur Alpinen Architektur. Hagen: Folkwang-Verlag, 1920.
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