Gropius, Martin Philipp

views updated

Gropius, Martin Philipp (1824–80). Influential German architect and teacher. He studied at the Bauakademie (Building Academy or School of Architecture) in Berlin, where he became familiar with the Grecianized Classicism evolved by Schinkel. He later became Professor at the Bauakademie, Director of the Art School in Berlin, and supervisor of all Prussian Art Schools. He designed the Lunatic Asylum at Neustadt-Eberswalde (1862–3), the hospitals at Friedrichshain (1867–71) and Tempelhof (1875–8), and the Art-Industrial Museum, one of his best buildings, now the Martin-Gropius-Bau (Martin Gropius Building—1881), Berlin. The clarity of his planning and structural systems owes much to Schinkel, while the terracotta and red and yellow brick he favoured created an opulent polychrome architecture. From 1866 he was in partnership with Heino Schmieden (1835–1913).

Bibliography

Schliepmann (1892)
Jane Turner (1996)