From the 1890s, the development of industrial architecture was determined by specialised design offices capable of devising the right operational scheme, the corresponding spatial layout and economical building structures while meeting the demands placed on the appearance of the resulting work. The most successful such office in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was founded by Bruno Bauer in Prague in 1908. Although he moved it to Vienna three years later, the majority of his work can be found in the Czech lands. He himself stated that he had worked on more than 380 projects, but so far only 75 of his buildings or entire production sites have been reliably identified, 14 of which no longer exist. Bauer studied civil engineering at the Prague Technical University from 1899–1908 and was one of the students of Josef Melan, whose concept of a reinforced concrete skeleton with rigid reinforcement he developed further. For the first time, he applied in practice and improved the columns, reinforced with cast-iron tubes, which were developed from 1902–1908 by Melan's senior student Fritz Emperger (1862–1942). Over time, he arrived at the decision to use the original skeleton structures, in which the prefabricated cast-iron column cores connected to the concrete shell by rigid steel wrapping carry most of the load, and the beams and girders are cast into a self-supporting formwork of perforated sheets, which also serves as their reinforcement. Bauer was also able to formulate his practical experience theoretically. In 1914, he entered a debate on the relationship between engineering and architecture, initiated by the German Werkbund, with his lecture titled The Problem of Industrial Construction, later published as a comprehensive essay. In it, he defined industrial construction as an "operating diagram in stone and iron," thus advocating not only the position of the theorist Hermann Muthesius, but also the latest scientific methods of American factory designers. Using his own version of the diagrammatic depiction of operations, Bauer designed an electrical engineering factory in Weiz, Styria during the First World War, but chiefly, several strategically important munitions factories. Only a large complex in what is now Mosonmagyar, which used plasma technology to extract nitrogen from the air, has remained preserved in a structurally authentic way. A similarly comprehensive work by Bauer is the now only partially preserved textile factory of the Berlin joint-stock company Deutsche Wollwaren-Manufaktur, built in 1923–1924 in the Lower Silesian town of Ziełona Góra. However, Bauer's typical assignment in the post-war period was the reorganisation of existing complexes with the addition of a new building, concentrating the preparatory and finishing production processes – e.g. the authentically preserved multi-storey buildings in Brno at Špitálka and in Červený Kostelec. These investment projects also often included detached textile dye-house buildings, for which Bauer developed roofs from 1910, as well as reinforced concrete double-skinned pinnacles, the oldest surviving example of which is probably the dye-house built according to Bauer's project in 1923 at Brno’s Špitálka, in the area now known as Mosilana, where it is adjacent to a similar, later building by Bauer. After the war, he managed to establish himself as an independent specialist in Austria both from an organisational and a legislative point of view. In 1925, he founded the Austrian branch of the Fédération Internationale des Ingénieurs-Conseils(FIDIC), and from 1931–1934, he served as president of the Engineering Chamber for Vienna, Lower Austria, and Burgenland. He was a supporter of technocratic thinking and also of Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi's idea of the unification of European countries. After the Anschluss of Austria, Bruno Bauer's Vienna office was liquidated. He died the same year, soon after he emigrated to London, on 21 December 1938.
LB
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industrial architect
Bruno Bauer -
Date of birth
30. 11. 1880 Vienna -
Date of death
21. 12. 1938 London
Spinnfabrik Teesdorf A. G. cotton spinning mill, plot 163/2, Bruno Seitz-Wohnpark 41.Teesdorf, 1908
Hlawatsch & Isbary combed yarn spinning mill, plot 196/2, Dukelská ulice, Kraslice, 1909
Aron & Jakob Löw-Beer's Söhne carded yard spinning mill of the woollen goods factory, no.6, plot 272, Brněnec, 1909
Enoch Kern's Sohn weaving mill, Žižkova 4318/53, Jihlava, 1909
Franz Gabler’s braid weaving mill, plot no. 484, Textilní ulice, Krnov-Opavské Předměstí, 1912
Boiler manufacturer Erste Brünner Maschinenfabrik-Gesellschaft, plot no. 1/7, Kuklenská ulice, Brno-Židenice, 1912.
Ericsson workshop building, Pottendorfer Straße 25-27, Wien XII, 1913
Tannwalder Baumwollspinnfabrik A. G. machine works and foundry, Krkonošská 149, Tanvald, 1913 and 1922
ELIN A. G. premises, Elingaße, Weiz 1915–1922
Offermann, Quittner, Schoeller & spol. garment workshops, Šumavská 416 /15 and 598 / 15a, Brno-Královo pole, 1915
Oscar Bondy's Sugar Factory, Osvobození 277, České Meziříčí, 1915
Reconstruction and extension to the weaving mill building Enoch Kern's Sohn, plot no. 180, Jihlava-Staré hory, 1916 (?)
Factory producing nitrogenous substances, Fertősor, Mosonmagyaróvár, 1916–1918
Deutsche Wollwaren-Manufaktur A. G. textile mill, Wrocławska 17b, Zielona Góra, 1923
United Woollen Goods Factory dye-works (Barevna a. s. Sdružené továrny vlněného zboží), plot no. 88/2, Špitálka 12, Brno-Trnitá, 1923
David Hecht dye-works, plot no. 85/4, Špitálka 10, Brno-Trnitá, 1926–1930
Preparation shop of the spinning and weaving mill (Tkalcovna a.s. Červenokostelecké a Erlašské přádelny a tkalcovny), plot no.267/13, Náchodská, Letná, Červený Kostelec, 1927 Finishing rooms, warehouse and offices of the United Woollen Goods Factory (Sdružená továrna vlněného zboží), Špitálka 60/12, Brno-Trnitá, 1927
Literatura:
Bruno Bauer, Das Problem des Industriebaues. Zeitschrift des Österreichischen Ingenieur‑ und Architektenvereines LVIII, 1916, č. 15, s. 289–296 a č. 16, s. 309–314.
Günther Schmick, Bewehrungsskelette für Eisenbetonbauten: Bauweise Dr. Ing. Bauer: Patente von Bruno Bauer, Wien 1932.
Ute Georgeacopol‑Winischhofer, Vom Arbeitshaus zur Großindustrie. Zur Geschichte des Industriebaus von den Anfängen bis in die Zwischenkriegszeit in der Wiener Leopoldstadt. Wien 1998, s. 78–79.
Lukáš Beran, Bruno Bauer a industriální architektura v českých zemích. Praha 2016.