About this talk

Running time: 21 minutes

Konrad Wachsmann was proud of the fact that he began his working life as a carpenter. He later studied under Polzaig in Berlin, where he also practised architecture, until the Prix de Rome took him to Italy. After this he worked in Spain, and then in 1971 he emigrated to the USA.

Wachsmann is famous for his design of industrialised building components, and of a system for constructing large aircraft hangars with prefabrication parts; and for his book "The Turning Point of Buildings" (1961) which has indeed engendered turning points for many of its readers. In the Fifties he directed Advanced Building Research at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago; and since 1965 he has directed the Building Research Division at University of Southern California.

John Entenza, former director of the Graham Foundation, once said of Wachsmann "He is a creature of science as it inadvertently approaches poetry". His talk, which he calls a Mini Manifesto, overviews and illustrates the development of his ideas, and ends on an optimistic note, looking to the future as is his wont, foreseeing an abundance of energy everywhere, and posing questions which we should be asking now - for this future lies just round the corner.

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