Purism in Concept, Form and Materials

_ the interplay of sculpture and architecture
_ Focus on building and spatial creations
_ Classification of his spatial artworks in an international context
_ Documentation through images, plans and sketches

"Decades before the concrete minimalism so celebrated today, Rosa created a masterpiece whose impressive and moving spatial asceticism will outlast many architectural fashions and deserves a place of honor in post-war German architectural history."
Wilfried Nerdinger

By hand—in the truest sense of the word, without machinery or cranes—the sculptor Hermann Rosa built studio houses as large, walk-in sculptures made of exposed concrete. These are, on the one hand, sophisticatedly composed of surfaces and open, similar to the works of De Stijl or the Bauhaus in their "dematerialized," spiritualized classical modernism. On the other hand, they are made of base, heavy materials, similar to the earthy béton brut of his contemporaries Paul Rudolph and Le Corbusier.

This volume explores how Rosa's sculptural power and architectural spatial design merge into a unique expression. Radically and precisely, he prioritized spatial and material elements, dispensing with all color and decoration, subordinating every detail to the purity of form. Using new and historical photographs, sketches, plans, and texts, this extraordinary work is explored and placed in its international context.