UNESCO and 'architecture with a smile.' - Art Nouveau architecture

UNESCO Courier, August, 1990 by Hans-Dieter Dyroff

UNESCO AND 'ARCHITECTURE WITH A SMILE'

NINETEEN COUNTRIES (*1) are today cooperating in a Unesco project to study and protect the architectural heritage of Art Nouveau and Jugendstil--described at a recent meeting of specialists as "architecture with a smile".

The notion of cultural dialogue, today a central feature of Unesco's programme, was already foreshadowed in the Art Nouveau movement. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Hungarian town of Keckskemet, where the seeds of the Unesco project were sown at a meeting of specialists held in 1985. Kecskemet has a number of magnificent buildings dating from the turn of the century, including a town hall designed by the Hungarian architect Odon Lechner (1845-1914). Though uniquely Hungarian, these buildings are also the product of a closely knit network of international influences and exchanges, and bear witness to a powerful movement whose dynamics spread not only through the countries of Europe but also to other continents.

The Art Nouveau project soon generated great interest. The German National Commission for Unesco in Bonn, which acted as co-ordinator, drew up an initial plan which won wide approval at Unesco's General Conference in 1985. The following year, a group of European specialists met at Heiligkreuztal in the Federal Republic of Germany and defined Art Nouveau architecture for the purposes of the project--a difficult task in view of the great diversity of creators and processes involved. They adopted a definition which was broad enough to include not only the work of leading figures who set out to use a combination of artistic skills in order to create "all-inclusive works of art" but also the contributions of less well-known architects and builders many of whom played an important role, whether in shaping urban districts or in helping the transmission of Art Nouveau internationally.

The next stage was to assemble and evaluate information about Art Nouveau buildings as a basis for possible preservation work. A fund of information about international exchanges, building techniques and especially the experimental use of new materials at the turn of the century has gradually been created. As far as the spread of Art Nouveau is concerned, it would be impossible to emphasize too strongly the influence exercised by popular illustrated periodicals such as the German magazine Jugend, which made extensive use of photographs to document new trends in architecture and the arts. Not surprisingly, thefore, one important activity of the Unesco project is the assembling of photographic documentation on Art Nouveau buildings and on efforts being made to preserve them. The Unesco National Commission of the German Democratic Republic has already mounted an exhibition which has so far been shown in its country of origin, in Finland andin the Federal Republic of Germany. The other countries participating in the project intend to prepare similar exhibitions.

There are many reasons for the growing interest in the project. One of them is the fascination exercised by an age in which the development of new engineering tools and techniques, the expansion of transport and communication, and belief in progress, gave a strong impetus to architectural and aesthetic innovations. Another is a general revival of interest in the work of great architects such as Henry van de Velde, Hermann Obrist, Otto Wagner, Eliel Saarinen and many others.

A considerable amount of expertise and knowledge has by now been accumulated, ranging from bibliographies reflecting the current state of research in different countries, to lists of monuments, experts, firms, materials and other information. The Unesco project group is now ready to offer its advice and assistance to specific conservation operations, fully aware that its co-operation in such efforts can only be based on the initiative and involvement of local groups.

(*1) Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgarian, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, the German Democratic Republic, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

HANS-DIETER DYROFF, German at historian, is director of the cultural section at the German National Commission for Unesco in Bonn (Fed. Rep. of Germany). He is the coordinator of Unesco's international joint study and action project on Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture.