HUGO HARING -- the Organic versus the Geometric.

By Peter Blundell Jones. Stuttgart: Axel Menges. 1999. DM148, [pounds]58

This monograph has raised expectations years before its appearance, and without a doubt, Blundell Jones has achieved an epic work. For readers interested in matters of modernism and its multiple strands, this book gives a broad and detailed account of the political, cultural and architectural discourses surrounding one of the most problematic, enigmatic figures, who, for a time, spearheaded the other modernists. Hugo Haring stood for the discovery of form -- Gestaitfindung -- in the process of designing. This approach stands within the German tradition of the embodiment of the spirit in a form. Friedrich Schiller's dictum 'It is the spirit that forms its body' could be regarded as Haring's central principle.

The character of this spirit itself in Haring's case, though, makes for more troubling reading. His preference for the Nordic race has made many of his readers uncomfortable. Blundell Jones attempts to rescue Haring from too close an association with the 'blood and soil' ideology of the Nazis. Haring's failure to convince Le Corbusier and other CIAM members to develop a modern building -- neues bauen -- is one of the central tragedies still afflicting contemporary architecture.

Haring's buildings, often described by Blun-dell Jones as disappointments when seen in reality, lack the fervour of his writings. Nonetheless, the farm at Garkau and the late houses in Biberach, together with dozens of unbuilt projects, undoubtedly belong to the thesaurus of twentieth-century architecture. The minute, monochromatic illustrations (probably due to reproduction restrictions) do Haring a disservice. Blundell Jones offers few true building analyses: they are more like descriptions. But, as in the case of his Scharoun monograph, he is probably working on the sequel: there is still space for a profound architectural evaluation of Haring's work.