Hannes Meyer

Meyer, Hannes 

Born Nov. 18, 1889, in Basel; died July 19, 1954, in Crocifisso di Savosa, Switzerland. Swiss architect.

From 1909 to 1912, Meyer studied at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin. Between 1910 and 1920 he lived in Germany, where he was associated with the Dutch group De Stijl and with Le Corbusier. Meyer also lived in the USSR (1930–36) and in Mexico (1939–49). An active exponent of the principles of functionalism, Meyer sought to achieve an analytically precise spatial organization in his architecture, which resulted logically from the building’s system of functional processes (the unrealized project for the Palace of the League of Nations, with H. Wittwer, 1926–27; the trade union school in Bernau near Berlin, 1928–30).

Meyer’s social and political views, which were those of a convinced Marxist, were reflected in his designs, which answered the real demands of the workers (the Freidorf settlement near Basel, 1919–21; the unrealized project for the socialist city of Nizhnekur’insk, 1932), and in his teaching, which related architectural education to the demands of social reality (director of the Bauhaus, 1928–30).

WORKS

“Stroif” and “Kak ia rabotaiu.” [Articles.] In the collection Mastera arkhitektury ob arkhitekture. Moscow, 1972. Pages 354–64.

REFERENCES

Baukhauz. Dessau. Period rukovodstva Gannesa Maiera. 1928–1930. (Catalog of exhibition.) Moscow, 1931.
Schnaidt, C. Hannes Meyer. Zürich, 1965.