Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner
b. Kraljevec, Austria, 1861;
d. Dornach, Switzerland, 1925.

Rudolf Steiner, a philosopher and spiritual teacher who developed a new style of architecture for his Anthroposophical Society. He was a Goethe and Nietzsche scholar, largely self-educated, who developed an interest in the polarity between science and nature. Educated at the Vienna Technical College, he embarked on a lifetime’s search to bridge the knowledge gap between matter and spirit, an idea that was thoroughly explored in his unconventional architecture towards the end of his life. He admired the German architect Gottfried Semper, having been taught by one of his disciples, Josef Baier, but he viewed Semper also as a material functionalist and one who “led everything artistic back to technique”. Steiner was more interested in intuition, creativity and clairvoyance. He gave a series of lectures on architecture at Dornach in 1914 during the building of the First Goetheanum, which was destroyed by fire (1921-2). These and subsequent talks form the basis of Steiner’s new style in architecture, which his followers adhere to. There has been a revival of interest recently in Steiner’s ideas which is closely associated with “organic architecture”.

Filed Under S on July 22, 2008

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