Client intentions and Bruno Taut’s Glashaus

An often overlooked aspect concerning the Glashaus is the significant influence exerted by the client in the design of the building. In an intentional endeavour to create an exhibition pavilion that best showcased their glazed products and construction technologies, the German Luxfer Prism Syndicate both commissioned and majority financed the Glashaus. It would therefore seem strange that the official histories of the Glashaus would rather record the utopian, romanticised and arguably imagined intentions of Bruno Taut as the architect, as opposed to the reality of the client’s intentions. This paper offers a reinterpretation of the Glashaus from the perspective of German Luxfer Prism Syndicate. This reinterpretation is achieved through an investigation that primarily concentrates on the glazed areas of the Glashaus where the German Luxfer Prism Syndicates products were most evident. Using the arguments initially presented by Dietrich Neumann as a foundation, this research is additionally interwoven with inquiry into diverse aspects such as patents filed by the Luxfer group of companies and a close examination of the original black and white photographs of the Glashaus. A dramatically different understanding emerges when the Glashaus is argued from the perspective of the client; an understanding that is cold, hard and commercial as opposed to utopian and romanticised. As a result, this research makes a contribution to the current debate concerning the Glashaus and the re-evaluation of the histories of the modern movement.