Seidl, Gabriel von

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Seidl, Gabriel von (1848–1913). German architect and engineer. He is best-known for his advocacy of a revival of Bavarian vernacular architecture (e.g. timber Alpine buildings, or ‘Swiss cottages’). He made many designs for Das deutsche Zimmer der Renaissance (1880), edited by Georg Hirth (1841–1916), which popularized interiors that drew on German vernacular and Renaissance exemplars. He designed the sumptuous Villa Lenbach (1887–9), the Künstlerhaus (1893–1900—largely destroyed 1945, rebuilt 1961), the Romanesque Revival Church of St Anne (1887–92—restored after war damage), the Nationalmuseum (1897–9), and the Deutsches Museum (1906–25—an early building in which reinforced concrete was used for the structure, completed by his brother Emanuel (1856–1919) ), all in Munich, the Classical Neues Rathaus, Bremen (1909–12), and many other works. He influenced Theodor Fischer and Schumacher, and his ‘Bavarian style’ used in domestic architecture continued well into C20: excellent examples were Emanuel von Seidl's Brey Landhaus, Murnau, and the Landhaus (or villa) for Richard Strauss (1864–1949), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (both completed before 1910). The Strauss villa (where the composer spent the rest of his life) was said to have been built on the proceeds of the opera Salome (first given in Dresden, 1905).

Bibliography

Bössl (1966);
H. Muthesius (ed.) (1910);
S. Muthesius (1974);
Jane Turner (1996).

A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

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Seidl, Gabriel von

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