Theodor Fischer e Monaco/Fritz Schumacher e Amburgo. Il “blocco edilizio” e la corte, corpi murari e spazi collettivi / Theodor Fischer and Munich/Fritz Schumacher and Hamburg. The “building block” and the courtyard, wall structures and collective spaces

The main topic of this essay is a comparison between two important “stadtbaumeister”, whose similar experiences are linked with stories of two different cities. The focus on T. Fischer and F. Schumacher allows on one hand the clarification of techniques and tools for the orderly growth of Munich and Hamburg, on the other hand the understanding of their contributions on the modern living. Fischer and Schumacher looks to the old city as a moment in the history of the bigger city. According to Fischer and Schumacher, the city’s past is also a reference point for modern architecture. Its elements – boundaries, monuments, fabrics, houses, garden and water canals – spill into the modern urban plan. The “building block” and the courtyard are fundamental things in the several residential parts within the big city. The city is also built on only few rules that are rely on simple tools committed to the “human” scale. These rules determine a specific language and affirm a common style through a known construction technique. Therefore, the clay soil of Hamburg causes the widespread use of bricks, the rocky soil of Munich induces the use of stones and tuff. This indicates a hidden constructive expressivity that appears in a tectonic code: a norm that used to represent and connect the elements of the buildings, their structures and configurations, their urban character.