(b K?nigsberg, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia], 15 May 1884; d W. Berlin, 26 Feb 1967). Brother of (1) Bruno Taut. He trained as a carpenter before studying architecture at the Baugewerkschule in K?nigsberg (1903-5). Between 1906 and 1911 he was employed in Hermann Billing's office in Karlsruhe, and in 1911 he established his own practice in Berlin, sharing studio accommodation with his brother and with Franz Hoffmann. Among his earliest executed designs were schools in Finsterwalde (1911-13) and Nauen (1913-16), the Koswig textile factory (1913) at Finsterwalde, and an exhibition hall (1913; with Friedrich Seesselberg) for the Werdandibund at the Internationale Baufachausstellung, Leipzig. After army service he returned to Berlin, where he joined the Arbeitsrat f?r Kunst and the Novembergruppe. A member of the Gl?serne Kette group, he produced a series of fantasy drawings for a crystalline architecture to be constructed of steel and concrete (see 1984 exh. cat., pp. 64-8). These forms also appeared in a tomb (1921) for the Wissinger family at Stahnsdorf, near Berlin, and survived in the interiors of his office (1922-4) for the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (ADG) in Berlin. This building had an exposed, reinforced concrete frame, a type of construction that he used with great distinction in subsequent works, notably his unsuccessful scheme for the Chicago Tribune competition (1922), in the head office (1924-6; with sculptural decoration by Rudolf Billing (1886-1972)) of the Verband Deutscher Drucker, Berlin, and in an office block (1929-31) for the ADGB in Frankfurt am Main, where the interior spaces and circulation were given powerful external expression by the steel and concrete frame.
Part of the Taut family
See the Abbreviations for further details.
