Resumen de Ornamento y razón: simbología en la arquitectura fabril de Heinrich Gentz y Peter Behrens
María dolores Montoro Rodríguez
The Mint was built by Heinrich Gentz between 1798 and 1800 at theWerderschen Markt in Berlin. The program of the building included, in addition to the workshops for the minting of coins, a space in which to exhibitthe king's collection of minerals, as well as the classrooms for the newlycreated Bauakademie.Despite the complexity of the program and the privileged place in which itwould develop, the New Mint was first of all for Gentz, a factory for theState. From this consideration the architect deduced two fundamentalprinciples that would define the style of the construction: on the one hand,it had to be strong, as it was an industry, and rich on the other, to convey itscondition of official building. The first requirement was solved through apowerful volumetry, to which an appropriate ornamentation was added,that is to say, a series of decorative elements that, far from being anecdotalor arbitrary, contributed to transmit the essence of the building.Heinrich Gentz and Friedrich Gilly are considered the greatest exponents ofthe so-called "typically Prussian architecture". Both of them exerted a greatinfluence on the German architects of the 19th and 20th centuries; amongthem, Peter Behrens is one of those who declared himself as an admirer ofthe young prussian masters.In the production of Behrens, the spirit of Gentz and Gilly can be appreciated from his early works, but it is perhaps in the constructions that he madefor the AEG (1908-1913), where the influence of the prussian architectsappears in a clearer way. In these factories Behrens uses powerful volumetries and uses ornamental elements that sometimes not only refer to theGerman architecture of the late eighteenth century, but are literal quotes tothe Mint
