The idea of “building with electric light” in the German architectural disputation of 1925-1933

The article is about the popularity of the idea of the “architecture of light” in the German architectural disputation of the turn of the 1920’s and 1930’s. The significance of electric light in the shaping of architectural compositions increased in Germany after the First World War. Light advertisements emphasizing modern and functionalist nature of buildings started to appear on façades of face-lifted tenement houses. Neon signs were often integrated with the form of façades. German (mostly Berlin) architectural avant-garde circles often proposed development of “architecture of light”: the inclusion of light in the whole architectural design to embellish buildings with entirely new, original but also simple, compositions of effects becoming visible after dark. The night appearance of a building could be styled by ribbon windows, neon signs or tall store displays. Electric light became an add-on to architecture or even, as in the designs by Hans Poelzig or Erich Mendelsohn, a “material” equally important as steel, ferroconcrete and glass.