House and Garden 
SOME REACTIONARY 
EXPERIMENTS IN 
ARCHITECTURE 
npHE desire on the part of 
the German Symbolists 
to work out their problems in 
architectural design with as 
little restraint from precedent 
as possible has led to the dis¬ 
carding of the orders, and so 
incidentally to the disuse of at¬ 
tached columns, or the pilaster 
treated in conventional fashion. 
When, then, a composition is 
in hand in which exigencies of 
plan and construction demand 
an emphasis of the vertical 
line, the symbolists have ac¬ 
cepted the challenge and have 
not hesitated to suppress the 
horizontal line almost entirely. 
The results of some recent ex¬ 
periments in this direction are 
shown on this page. One cannot but feel in 
these examples the lack of .a horizontal line and 
the buildings appear as if about to disintegrate. 
Whether these attempts serve as a warning or a 
stimulus will depend wholly on the point of view. 
A PRIVATE HOUSE-BERLIN 
At any rate reactionary experiments are always in¬ 
forming to the onlooker if fatal to the experimenter. 
A SHOP—BERLIN 
From “ Architektonische Rundschau ” 
AN INSURANCE OFFICE—BERLIN 
