Ernst Neufert, one of the first student from the Bauhaus and protégé of Walter Gropius, who created an Architects’ Data book which established a rationalisation of the human (male) body and its direct built environment (furniture, street, building etc.), was born 114 years ago on the 15th of March.

Born: 15th March, 1900 in Freyburg an der Unstrut, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
Died: 23rd February, 1986 in Bugneaux-sur-Rolle, in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

Early Training:

– Bricklayer from the age of 12 to 17.
– School of Construction (Baugewerbeschule) in Weimar, Germany, from 1917 to 1920.
– Recommended to Walter Gropius in 1919 as one of his first students of the Bauhaus.
– Together with the expressionist architect Paul Linder (1897-1968) embarks on a year-long study tour of Spain sketching medieval churches. Having met Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, Neufert later became one of the first advocates of Gaudi in Germany.
– After 1921 he returns to the Bauhaus and becomes chief architect under Gropius in one of the most prominent architecture studios of the Weimar Republic.

Important Buildings by Ernst Neufert:

– Mensa am Philosophenweg in Jena (1928-1930)

– Abbeanum in Jena (1929-1930)

– Wohn- und Atelierhaus in Weimar-Gelmeroda (1929) (today the home of the Neufert Foundation and Neufert Box, a small museum with changing exhibitions)

– Ernst-Neufert-Haus, Darmstadt (1952-1955), built as a “Ledigenwohnheim” (single men residence)

– Quelle-Grossversandhaus in Fürth (1954-1967)

Important Writings by Ernst Neufert:

– Walter Prigge (Hrsg.): Ernst Neufert. Normierte Baukultur im 20. Jahrhundert. Edition Bauhaus Dessau. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999 ISBN 3-593-36256-2
– Ernst Neufert: Bauentwurfslehre. Handbuch für den Baufachmann, Bauherren, Lehrenden und Lernenden. Friedr.Vieweg & Sohn Verlag/ GWV Fachverlage GmbH, Wiesbaden 2005 ISBN 3-528-99651-X

By Mia Pujol, ESARQ_UIC Publications Team