Gottfried Semper (1803 to 1879) was an architect and theorist born in Hamburg-Altona who became professor of architecture at the Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich. Born into a well-to-do family, he studied mathematics in Göttingen and architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, then toured Italy and Greece and published a study in 1834 arguing that ancient buildings and sculpture were coloured rather than marble white. He was a professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, fled after the May Uprising of 1849, and in 1855 received a lifelong professorship in Zurich as Director of the Building School. His buildings include the Polytechnic main building, the Zurich observatory, the Winterthur town hall, the second Dresden court theatre now known as the Semperoper, and with Carl Hasenauer the court museums in Vienna. His major theoretical work is Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts.
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Semper took part in the nineteenth century dispute over colour on ancient Greek buildings; he is not a Greek architect.
Source Architectuul: Gottfried Semper
Semper was the first director of the Building School of the Polytechnic, the ancestor of this department.
Source Gottfried Semper (ETH Library)
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Source Architectuul: Gottfried SemperBiography, opening lineQuote, Biography, opening line
Gottfried Semper (November 29th, 1803 - May 15th, 1879) was a German architect, art critic, and professor of architecture
Sources
1. Gottfried Semper (ETH Library)
Biography, first paragraph
Gottfried Semper was born into a well-to-do family in Hamburg-Altona on 29 November 1803.
Vienna and Rome
He left Vienna in 1877 and moved to Rome, where he died on 15 May 1879.
Associated With: ETH Zurich Department of Architecture, Architectural work
On 7 February 1855, the Swiss Federal Council granted Semper a lifelong professorship. He moved to Zurich and took up his position as Director of the Building School.
View the SourceArchitectuul: Gottfried Semper
ArchitectuulAssociated With: Classical Greek Architecture, Biography paragraph oneQuote, Associated With: Classical Greek Architecture, Biography paragraph one
he was one of the major figures in the controversy surrounding the polychrome architectural style of ancient Greece
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