Augustus Pugin

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( born March 1, 1812 in London, † September 14, 1852 in Ramsgate ) was an English architect and architectural theorist. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the Gothic Revival.

Life

Pugin was the son of immigrants from France architects and architectural theorist Augustus Charles Pugin (1762-1832), who designed, among other details in the Gothic style of John Nash, was born. His own son, Edward Welby Pugin (1834-1875), also operated as an architect.

Augustus Welby Pugin received his elementary education as a day pupil at Christ's Hospital, better than Blue Coat School known. Early on, he took a place among the students of his father and accompanied him, among others, to Normandy to study Gothic architecture there. He also helped his father in creating a series of Gothic architecture and decor studies.

Pugin showed very early an amazing talent in drawing and in the design of Gothic forms. At the age of 15 years he worked for the London firm Morel & Seddon, designing furniture for those in the Gothic style to the interior of the palace Windsor. At the same time he made freelancing on plans for furniture and metalwork for other London-based company. With 17 Pugin set up his own small shop which supplied furniture and decorative carvings for interiors. After initial successes, however, he had to close again in 1831. Pugin had a great passion for the theater and was at this time worked as a stage decorator for the Covent Garden Theatre, in particular for Sir Walter Scott's ballet adaptation of " Kenilworth ".

In 1833, he worked with Sir Charles Barry in the design of the King Edward 's School, Birmingham, together. This business relationship led 1835/36 in action as Mitentwerfer of the new building of the Houses of Parliament, which had been transferred Barry. The year 1835 already was a turning point in the career of Pugin. His book, entitled Gothic Furniture in the Style of the Fifteenth Century that gave a new understanding of the medieval design technique has been published. In the same year he purchased a small plot of land in Laverstock, near Salisbury, where he Marie's Grange, a house in the style of the 15th century, built for himself and his family St., and what was more important to him, converted to Roman Catholic faith.

Due to his early death was his active creative period as an architect just over ten years.

Work and career

Pugin was one of the most prominent advocates of the revival of Gothic architecture in England. The at that time still prevailing classicism was considered unworthy of him as a Christian country. With the Gothic Revival, whose style he saw as Christian, he joined the hope of a religious revival. These views he represented in his writings as well as glowing and instructive, and it is therefore regarded as a predecessor of the theories of John Ruskin. Leading the way for the Gothic Revival was his writing The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture of 1841. Somewhat in contrast to the vehemence of his theories is considered to be generally fairly cool, with a light hand -designed architecture.

Pugin's main client with over 60 churches, the Catholic Church, for which he also produced the best of his designs. These included the St. George's Cathedral in London Borough of Southwark (1841-1848), the cathedral of Nottingham (1844 ), the Cathedral of Newcastle upon Tyne (1844 ), Church of St. Augustine's in Ramsgate (1851 ) and in Ireland, St. Aidan 's Cathedral Enniscorthy (1843-1849) and St. Mary's Cathedral, Killarney ( 1840-1855 ).

Among his most important churches include, inter alia, the Roman Catholic St. Chad 's Cathedral in Birmingham, the first in England since the Reformation newly built cathedral. St. Chad's presents itself externally as simple brick building with homelessness edges of the windows and doors and two towers; Unfortunately originally planned higher and thus the building a visual balance giving crossing tower was not carried out. ( A picture of the originally planned building can be found on the frontispiece of his book On apology for the revival, represented there as the only twin tower church.) Inside the three-nave hall church shows a rich, typical of Pugin interior design, this was especially true no longer for the St. located Chad's rood screen.

In the period 1837-1840 Pugin's architectural work has been increasingly in demand. In 1837 he made ​​the acquaintance of authority of St. Mary 's College, Oscott, which commissioned him with the completion of the new chapel as well as the decoration of the new College. For the chapel Pugin designed the apse with its striking ridge, the color window of the chancel, the decoration of the vault, the stone pulpit and Gothic church vestments. He constructed of old wood carvings from the continent a retable. He used enamel plates from Limoges For the visible side of the high altar. Another Furnishings he acquired from St. Gertrude 's Church in Leuven confessionals, benches and a carved pulpit from the 17th century. For the College Pugin built the two gate building and added the tower still a turret added that Pugin 's night -cap.

Other works include the design of the interior of the Erdington Abbey and the Oscott College, both in Birmingham. He also designed the building for the College of St. Patrick and St. Mary in Maynooth.

In the years 1840-1844 Pugin's influence reached its zenith. From this time the Cathedral of St. Barnabas, Nottingham, the drawings for the Balliol College, Oxford ( 1843), the Church of St. Giles in Cheadle, Staffordshire ( 1841-46 ), as well as extensive repairs and additions to the Alton Towers, Staffordshire originate. In addition, Pugin also influenced several other British architects. The most prominent example of this is the Scottish architect James Gillespie Graham, the numerous churches and representative buildings designed in Scotland based on Pugin's architecture.

The last major work concerned Pugin's own house, St. Augustine's Grange and the associated church of St. Augustine's in Ramsgate, Kent. Elegant and original gothic to present the role of family chapel in Bicton, Devon, the decorations for the House of Lords and the Chapel of St. Edmund 's College, Old Hall Green, Hertfordshire. During his last years he worked with Sir Charles Barry on the new Palace of Westminster; he designed the clock tower Big Ben, possibly his most famous world building. And he looked at the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition in London until 1851 he suffered a nervous breakdown.

Writings

• Ornaments of the XVth and XVIth centuries. Ancient timber houses at Rouen, Caen, Bauvais, & c. , Gothic furniture of the XVth century. Designs for gold & silver ornaments, and designs for iron & brass -work in the style of the XVth and XVIth centuries. 4 parts. Ackerman & Co., London 1835 to 1837.
• Contrasts, or a Parallel Between The noble edifices of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and similiar buildings of the present day, shewing the present decay ot button. s n, s l, 1836.
• The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture. Weale, London 1841.
• The Present State of Ecclesiastical Architecture in England. Dolman, London 1843
• An apology for the revival of Christian Architecture. Weale, London 1843 digitized.