Kurt Forster’s book on the influential German architect Friedrich Schinkel breaks decisively from the traditional formats of either a chronological biography or a systematic analysis of an architect’s work as it develops from “early” to “late” periods. In assessing Schinkel’s legacy, Forster cuts through the art-historical categorizations such as “neoclassicism” or “classical-romanticism” by which Schinkel is usually identified (e.g., his Altes Museum in Berlin, 1830, or his Court Gardener’s House of 1833 at Sanssouci in Potsdam.)
Instead, Forster looks for generative principles underlying the great architect’s creative output, framing the book as a series of punctuated moments in Schinkel’s life. Each one is treated as some kind of archeological dig and subsequent reconstruction, and each linked to the next in a kind of montage.
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