Peter Behrens

Peter Behrens (1868-1940), German architect and designer, born in Hamburg. Initially a graphic artist in the florid art nouveau style, he turned to architecture about 1900. Behrens soon developed an austerely geometric, functional style that in time became the standard for modern industrial buildings. Appointed artistic supervisor for the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) in 1907, he designed its products and built factories and workers' housing. Behrens pioneered in the use of such new building techniques and materials as poured concrete, exposed exterior steel supports, and a lavish use of glass, as in his AEG Turbine Factory (1909) in Berlin. His brick Höchster Farbwerke (1920-24), near Frankfurt, was less inventive. Behrens employed three men who became leaders in modern architecture: Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier.