Peter Berens, a harbinger of modern design

The German architect Peter Berens (1868–1940) is considered the founder of industrial design and industrial architecture.

And in fact: the stages of his creative evolution to such an extent reflect the history of one of the main lines of European art, as if the Higher Forces took care of an instructive example for descendants. A native of a wealthy Hamburg family, Berens studied at the best art schools of that time - in Karslrue, Munich and Dusseldorf. He began as an artist-lover and book schedule and left us wonderful samples of the Munich Yugen-style-these are not only book illustrations, but also design. Berens was one of the founders of the Munich Secession (1892), and then the Munich United art workshops (1898). In these years, he worked as a book schedule and actively participated in the design of the Berlin art magazine "Pan".

In 1899, at the invitation of the Duke of Hesse, Berens joined the Darmstad colony of artists, where he designed a house for his family. He also developed the interior design of this house, including furniture and all household items, up to porcelain and cutlery. Berens biographers believe that it was then that he felt architecture as his unconditional calling.

In 1901-1907, Berens taught, and then led the Dusseldorf school of applied art. In 1907, the large industrial corporation AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft) invited Berens as the main designer.

Berens is considered a pioneer of modern design because he initially interpreted his tasks as qualitatively different than the tasks of bringing the form to the already finished product - whether it is a clock, a lighting device or a logo. Industrial design, according to Berens, had its own laws. It is not surprising that the artist with his experience and taste created spectacular and laconic trademarks, street clocks, fans and electric kettles, from which the current ones are almost no different, and much more.

Surprisingly, however, that Berens managed to “without loss” to move from design to the creation of large industrial buildings - without “giving them out for anything else. The workshop for the production of turbines (1908-1909) built according to his project was included in all textbooks on industrial architecture.

Berens has never been a full -time AEG employee, remaining from 1907 to 1912 as a consultant. It was during these years that among his students and employees we see those who determined the near future of architecture-this is MIS Van Der Roe, Adolf Meyer, Le Corbusier (i.e., Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris), Jean Kramer, Walter Gropius (in the future-the first leader of the Bauhaus).

In 1922, Berens began teaching at the Vienna Academy of Construction Arts; In 1936 he became the head of the architectural department of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. The Nazi authorities had no direct reasons to remove Berens from work; In addition, he has long been a world celebrity. Berens died in 1940.

Household items, once created by Berens, are still replicated-so, I have two kettles of the form he developed, and my Toster Berens has experienced the Second World War.