Rebuilding the Goetheanum

Sunday supplement of the Basler Nachrichten

Now that the Solothurn government has approved the model design of the new Goetheanum in principle, the Anthroposophical Society will begin its reconstruction in the very near future. In order to do justice to the suggestions for modification from the municipality of Dornach and the government, only a small amount of preparatory drawing and calculating work is needed before construction begins.

The new building will, however, differ greatly in form from the old Goetheanum. This is because it will not be made of wood like the old Goetheanum, but of concrete. The artistic sense must be allowed to express itself in the realization of the building idea. It is clear that the Goetheanum cannot be built in any old “style” determined by external factors. For it is meant to serve anthroposophy; and this is not a one-sided theoretical world view, but a comprehensive spiritual-spiritual way of life. When it presents itself to the world artistically, it can only do so by its spiritual view producing the style of art. Not building in this own style would mean denying the essence of anthroposophy in its own house.

An unbiased artistic observation will find that the Goetheanum style does not reject anything that is still significant today in historical styles; but it does not start from this or that 'inspiration' from given styles, but rather it is a matter of creating from the basic conditions of all sense of style. But the forms in which one can create a style are also dependent on the material. The old building was able to give its design in every detail to the space in which work was carried out, in the softness of the wood, from the spirit of anthroposophical contemplation; with concrete, forms had to be sought in which the space, by its very nature, could develop the formations that could accommodate the anthroposophical work. Essentially, straight lines and flat surfaces were used for the enclosing walls and roofing, which combine in their angular slopes to form the overall architectural concept. Only towards and in the portals do the lines and surfaces become somewhat smaller and their structure somewhat more varied. The whole building rises up on a ramp, which will have an artistic finish on all sides and will make it possible to walk around the building. As the visitor walks around it, the wonderful landscape of the surroundings will unfold before his eyes.

The building will enclose the following: a lower floor, which will house studios, lecture and practice rooms, workplaces, etc.; and an upper floor, which will contain the space designed for nine hundred to one thousand spectators or listeners. At the back, the lower floor is adjoined by a rehearsal stage, and the upper floor by the stage where public performances will take place. On the outside, the building is intended to be the artistic and true-to-life wrapping of what will unfold inside in terms of intellectual experience. Stylish staircases will lead up from the ground to the ramp at the portals. The necessary interior design of the two floors will have to follow the exterior forms; the roof – not in the form of a dome this time – will have to follow the lines and surfaces of the ascending auditorium on the one hand; on the other hand, it will have to be artistically integrated with the two stages and their storage rooms. Inside, the task will be to design the space for use as a lecture hall as well as a eurythmy and mystery theater. For example, the stretching of the space upwards in the configuration of columns can be seen. Thus, as in the old Goetheanum, what anthroposophy has to say can also be sensed in the building forms and in the overall architectural idea, in which it erects the house in which it is to work.

The fact that something monumental has emerged in the building idea has come about through the idea of the building; but what has been striven for in the whole and in every detail is not to be untrue in the building design, but to create in it an artistically completely truthful image of what is worked out within from spiritual knowledge. The builder is of the opinion that something is being created that the general, unbiased taste, which knows nothing about anthroposophy or wants to know, can definitely go along with.