Rudolf Steiner House And Hall

TQ 2782 SE 35 PARK ROAD, NW1 RUDOLF STEINER 34/101 HOUSE AND HALL

II GV

Hall, offices and meeting rooms for the Anthroposophical Society of Rudolf Steiner Hall 1924-6, rest 1931-2; all by Montague Wheeler, Cast in-situ concrete, faced in Granolithic concrete blocks. Roof not visible. Asymmetrical composition of four storeys. 3 regular bays to left under segmental pediment. Irregular fenestration of central. sections reflects staircases behind. Three under-spaced bays to right. Square mullion casements to upper floors with square panes. Round - arched openings to ground floor with, to right expressionist segmental curved shopfront under coved hood mould.

Interior a powerful composition centred on the hall built to stage performances of 'Eurythmy', the expression of the spirit through physical movement of the building: sinuous expressionistic curves implying movement. This is seen in the irregular angles and curves of the hall proscenium and windows, but most particularly in two staircases animatic in the life given to the concrete structure. This was achieved by first building models in clay, a medium much favoured by Steiner himself.

The Rudolf Steiner House is the headquarters of a power international movement that from the first expressed its ideology in architecture. This is the strongest English example of Steiner's unique architecture idiom best known at his goethenaum near Basle. The building stands also as an almost unique British example of the symbolic expressionism prevalent in German art before and after World War I.

Listing NGR: TQ2770882273