Evaluator, Choreographer, Ideologue, Catalyst: The Disparate Reception Histories of Alexander Klein's Graphical Method

Abstract

The graphical method propounded by Russian German Israeli architect Alexander Klein during the late 1920s evaluates the qualities of architectural plans through a process of diagrammatic analysis following purportedly objective criteria. In Evaluator, Choreographer, Ideologue, Catalyst: The Disparate Reception Histories of Alexander Klein's Graphical Method, Christoph Lueder examines the reception and adaptation of Klein's method. Ernst Löwitsch reinterpreted Klein's analytical notation as choreography of domestic life. Following Klein's forced emigration from Nazi Germany, Frank Gloor rediscovered Klein's graphical method and transformed and adapted it into a scientific method classifying degrees of flexibility. Catherine Bauer disseminated the method to the English-speaking world under a new title, “Functional Housing for Frictionless Living,” which led to Robin Evans's enduring indictment of Klein's diagrams as emblematic of reductive functionalism. Throughout its reception, the graphical method has been viewed at various times as a methodology of scientific evaluation, a choreography of everyday life, an indictment of functionalist ideology, and a catalyst for new working methodologies.