Assembling the Ineffable in Kurt Schwitters’ Architectural Models

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dc.contributor.authorMindrup, Matthewen
dc.contributor.committeecochairEmmons, Paul F.en
dc.contributor.committeecochairFrascari, Marcoen
dc.contributor.committeememberKunze, Donalden
dc.contributor.committeememberFeuerstein, Marcia F.en
dc.contributor.committeememberPérez-Gómez, Albertoen
dc.contributor.departmentArchitectureen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:08:30Zen
dc.date.adate2008-04-30en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:08:30Zen
dc.date.issued2007-11-09en
dc.date.rdate2008-04-30en
dc.date.sdate2008-03-25en
dc.description.abstractDuring the early 1920s, the German artist and poet, Kurt Schwitters, developed a method of creating models of architecture using found objects based upon his Merz approach to art. While many leading architects joined the Arbeitsrat für Kunst and Bruno Taut's Gläserne Kette at the end of World War I to speculate upon what to build for the new post-war German architecture, Schwitters challenged the predominant views by probing how it could be designed through models. Compared to the normative practice of molding clay and casting plaster into scale models after completed designs, Schwitters assembled found objects into two models, Haus Merz during 1920 and Schloss und Kathedrale mit Hoffbrunnen in 1922, to imagine new combinations and transformations of material, form and space in building designs. Schwitters' Merz interpretation of found objects as models of architecture held that all materials have an ineffable transitory content that contributes to their identities as natural or man-made utilitarian things. In the Christian medieval exegesis of religious objects, the interpretation of materials as a dichotomy of visible form and invisible content was described as "anagogy." However, unlike this Christian conception of the invisible that was transcendental and a priori, the anagogical Merz interpretation seeks to find the invisible within the visible through the active imagination of found materials assembled as a model of architecture. This dissertation examines Schwitters' proposed use of found objects to construct architectural models as an anagogical approach to the material imagination of architecture.en
dc.description.degreePh. D.en
dc.identifier.otheretd-03252008-191510en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-03252008-191510/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/26502en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspart07_IMAGES_1-36.pdfen
dc.relation.haspart02_INTRODUCTION.pdfen
dc.relation.haspart10_BACK_MATTER.pdfen
dc.relation.haspart06_CONCLUSION.pdfen
dc.relation.haspart03_CHAPTER_ONE.pdfen
dc.relation.haspart05_CHAPTER_THREE.pdfen
dc.relation.haspart00_TITLE_PAGE.pdfen
dc.relation.haspart01_FRONT_MATTER.pdfen
dc.relation.haspart08_IMAGES_37-72.pdfen
dc.relation.haspart09_Images_73-94.pdfen
dc.relation.haspart04_CHAPTER_TWO.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectAssemblageen
dc.subjectAnagogyen
dc.subjectDadaen
dc.subjectModelen
dc.subjectArchitectureen
dc.subjectKurt Schwittersen
dc.titleAssembling the Ineffable in Kurt Schwitters’ Architectural Modelsen
dc.typeDissertationen
thesis.degree.disciplineArchitectureen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen
thesis.degree.namePh. D.en

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