Laurenz Mefferdatis (1677 - 1748) : Bürgerhäuser und Hofanlagen in Aachen und im Aachener Umland

Laurenz Mefferdatis introduced a structural innovation at Aachen and left his mark in this free city at the beginning of the 18th century. Mefferdatis found a structure of the city, which was ruined by the major fire in 1656. The reconstruction was slow and only partial, due to the the city's lack of economic power. To avoid another such disaster, the new buildings were no longer built from wood, but from brick with "Werksteingewänden". The floor plans and the elevation followed the traditional method of construction. In the early 18th century, the early industrialisation with the new system of the "Verlagswesen" and the flourishing warm water sources provided a solid economic basis for extensive construction work. Beneath the functional buildings and churches, construction activities were driven by the wish of representation through impressive architecture, gave the construction industry a fresh impetus . The sources on which the present thesis is based was extremely difficult, both for written as well as architectural sources. That is why the thesis contains a catalogue part with an extensive compilation and description of Mefferdatis? buildings, based on information retrieved from archives as well as from existing buildings. After the catalogue, the analysis takes up the main characteristics of the Mefferdatis architectural style. In particular, the different types of floor and elevation plans for the facades with their pronounced "Fenstergewände" are worth mentioning Mefferdatis worked as master architect for the city of Aachen, whilst at the same time undertaking numerous private commissions. In the first half of the 18th century he became the preferred architect of the Council, the church, rich patricians and businessmen. His various activities included expert reports for litigations, cost and material estimates, small reparations, conversions and extensions of existing buildings, for city houses as well as for larger buildings. For newly built city houses, his drawings were mostly broad sided or square buildings, whose eaves were parellel to the street with brick walls. The windows were arranged in an axial way, doors and gates were framed with "Werkstein", most of the time using as a material "Blaustein". Depending on the surrounds, the roofs were - constructed as gable ore wide spread hipped roofs. In exceptional cases mansard roofs are shown. A strong wooden eave cornice hides the view of the roofs. The roofs construction shows the type usually found in this area. The effort of Mefferdatis to achieve axial symmetry is characteristic of his work. He tried to realise this principal independent of the size of and accession to the object. For larger buildings this is achieved through the integration of a projection or front piece. For the other buildings, the even or odd number of axes and - again only in the case of larger houses - the existence of a gateway were decisive elements. The search for a stylistic flawless and practical solutions can be found in various examples. Most of the floor plans have, due to the placement of the façade, a central axe with entrances at the front and at the garden facades. The rooms beside can be reached from this corridor and are orientated either to the street or to the garden. At one side of the house, these rooms are separated by an unlit area containing most of the times two flights of stair, located in the centre of the house. The general development of the type of ceilings from constructions with supporting beams to constructions with beam supporting walls took also place during Mefferdatis' time. The phase from the traditional medieval architecture just after the city fire to the broad sided, well lightened and practical ground plans of Mefferdatis, was important for the city of Aachen. A similar phase can be observed in the development of the facades, beginning from old gable houses up to the tight structured façade systems with undivided rectangular "Fenstergewände" of various types.

Grantor dc:publisher

Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University

Year dc:date

2003

Author dc:creator

• Skudelny, Steffen

Contributors dc:contributor

• Schild, Ingeborg
• Jansen, Michael
• Urban, Günter

• info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/720
• Mefferdatis, Laurenz
• Couven, Johann Jakob
• Aachen
• Aachen <Region>
• Bauforschung
• Bürgerhaus
• Bauernhof
• Umbau
• Denkmalpflege
• Belgien
• Niederlande
• Architektur
• 18. Jahrhundert
• Couven
• Moretti
• Schlaun
• Fenstergewände
• Hofanlagen

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Language dc:language

ger

Identifier

https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/search?p=id:%22RWTH-CONV-120876%22

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:publications.rwth-aachen.de:59060