Sigfried Giedion facts for kids

Sigfried Giedion (born April 14, 1888, in Prague; died April 10, 1968, in Zürich) was a Swiss historian. He was also a critic who wrote about architecture. His ideas and books were very important. Two of his most famous books are Space, Time and Architecture and Mechanization Takes Command. These books greatly influenced artists and thinkers in the 1950s.

Giedion was a student of Heinrich Wölfflin, a famous art historian. He also helped start the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM). This was a group of architects who wanted to shape modern building design. Giedion taught at several top universities. These included the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University.

In Space, Time & Architecture (1941), Giedion wrote a key history of modern architecture. His book Mechanization Takes Command offered a new way of looking at history.

Biography: Sigfried Giedion's Life Story

Sigfried Giedion was the son of a textile maker. He earned a degree in engineering from the University of Vienna in 1913. But he did not want to join the family business. Instead, he wrote poems and plays. One of his plays was even performed by a famous director, Max Reinhardt.

After that, Giedion studied art history in Munich. He finished his studies in 1922. His work focused on art styles like Romanesque and Baroque Classicism. A well-known art historian, A.E. Brinckmann, was interested in his work. Brinckmann invited Giedion to Cologne. But Giedion was not interested in a regular academic job.

In 1923, he visited the Bauhaus. This was a very famous art and design school. There, he met Walter Gropius, a leading architect. This meeting made Giedion interested in modern art and building. He became a supporter of the modern movement in architecture.

Shaping Modern Architecture

In 1928, Giedion helped create the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM). He worked with famous architects like Le Corbusier. Giedion was also the general secretary of this important group. In the same year, he joined a project called Werkbundsiedlung Neubühl. This was one of the first housing areas built in the modern style.

He also helped build the Doldertalhäuser in Switzerland. These houses showed what the new modern architecture was all about. Giedion also started Wohnbedarf AG, a building company. This company supported modern design. He wrote many articles in international magazines. He strongly supported Le Corbusier's design for the League of Nations building.

Teaching and Writing Career

From 1938 to 1939, Giedion taught at Harvard University. Walter Gropius invited him there. His lectures at Harvard became the basis for his book, Space, Time and Architecture. This book, published in 1941, tells the history of the modern movement.

In 1946, he became a professor at ETH-Zürich. He taught there until the 1960s. He also taught at MIT in the United States. During this time, he wrote many books and articles. He wrote about his research on modern ideas. His book Mechanization Takes Command looked at how machines changed history and society.

Personal Life and Family

In 1919, Sigfried Giedion married Carola Giedion-Welcker. They met while studying art history in Munich. Carola created a group of modern artists in Switzerland. Famous artists like Hans Arp were part of this group. Their daughter, Verena, married an architect named Paffard Keatinge-Clay.

Works

• Spätbarocker und romantischer Klassizismus, 1922
• Befreites Wohnen, 1929 (published in English as Liberated Dwelling, 2019)
• Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, 1941
• Nine Points on Monumentality, 1943
• Mechanization Takes Command: A Contribution to Anonymous History, 1948
• Walter Gropius, work and teamwork, 1954
• Architecture, You and Me: The Diary of a Development, 1958
• The Eternal Present: The Beginnings of Art and The Beginnings of Architecture, 1964
• Architecture and the Phenomenona of Transition. The Three Space Conceptions in Architecture, 1971
• Building in France, Building in Iron, Building in Ferroconcrete, 1995 (originally published in German in 1928)

See also

In Spanish: Sigfried Giedion para niños