First of all Karl Friedrich Schinkel had lived from 13 March 1781 until 9 October 1841, he was a Prussian architect, city planner and on his early age he earned his food by producing paintings. He was the founder of the so called "Schinkelshule" and had a decisive influence on Classicism in Prussia. When he was sixteen, an exhibition of the beautifully rendered project drawings by the young Friedrich Gilly fascinated him. Then he became a close friend of Friedrich Gilly and with his father, David Gilly. After his friend death ,Schinkel complete few projects of Friedrich and some of his own that earned him enough money to finance a study trip in 1803. During the next two years Schinkel visited Italy, including Naples and Sicily, passing through Dresden, Prague, and Vienna on the way, with a stop in Paris on the return journey. His studies completed and Schinkel was at last ready to begin practice in earnest. In order to appreciate the impact Schinkel was to have over the next thirty-five years on the appearance of Berlin. Schinkel's style, in his most productive period, is defined by a turn to Greek rather than Imperial Roman architecture, an attempt to turn away from the style that was linked to the recent French occupiers. His most famous buildings are found in and around Berlin .Although a generation younger than the English architects Sir John Soane ,Schinkel's career, like theirs, coincided with a period of transition in architecture, a period in which long-accepted conventions were called into question and unprecedented demands were placed upon the architect.
On the other hand Sir John Soane lived from 10 September 1753 untill20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialized in the Neo-Classical style. His architectural ware distinguished by their clean lines, massing of simple form, decisive detailing, careful proportions and skilful use of light sources. The influence of his work, coming at the end of the Georgian era, was swamped by the revival styles of the 19th century. Soane trained as an architect, first under George Dance and then from Henry Holland, while also studying at the Royal Academy schools, which he entered in 1771. During his studies at the Royal Academy, he won the Academy's silver medal (1772), gold medal (1776) and he finally earn a travelling scholarship in 1777 from the king, which he spent on developing his style in Italy. In the morning on 18 March 1788 Soane set out for Italy, with him was Robert Furze Brettigham, they reached Rome on 2 of May. There Soane found another English architect Thomas Hardwick that share the same interesting. In the letter to Henry Wood Soane write "I need not to tell you my attention is entirely taken up in the seeing and examining the numerous and inestimable remains of Antiquity"[1]. In Venice Soane made the most of his time by visiting as many churches and palazzo as possible. Finally on September 1780 Soane left Italy and went to set his practice in London.
Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire(1970s) When the Hon. Philip Yorke seat with his family at Wimpole, he at once commissioned Soane to make plans for the interior of the existing house. The requirements were an additional drawing-room, book-room and a staircase. The drawing room was crated behind and between existing rooms on the north site of the house. To solve the problem of the lighting, Soane set a dome over the central space and to the north site of the room he use a pair of windows on the external wall of the extended barrel-vaulted. For the book room "Soane suggested three arches which spring from the narrow, projecting piers faced with bookcases on either side of the room"[2].
Rosenau Palace Between 1808 and 1817 the building was fully reconstructed in a Gothic style under the supervision of Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Its Marble Hall, with three aisles, takes up half of the ground floor and is so called from its decoration with grey marble. At the same time as the reconstruction of the house, the park was redesigned in the style of an English garden. In the park are an orangery, the ruins of a hermitage, and waters called the Swan Lake and the Prince's Pond. At each end of the Rosenau, Schinkel added crow-stepped gables of an early Gothic style. The windows took on a later Gothic form, while small balconies and coats of arms in stone were added to decorate the main front. The principal tower, which in 1700 had been topped by a domed Welsche Haube, similar to an onion dome, was crenellated, while a ruined tower was left in romantic ruins.
The two buildings above, Soane's and Schinkel's are two buildings that the two architect reconstructed and redecorated, Soane has created a magnificent internal decoration and had used the sunlight to create this spiritual atmosphere in the places. In the other hand Schinkel has used the exterior of the building to create this Gothic style and has created a wonderful English garden in the landscape around the building that was influenced by his trip to England. The owners of both buildings were in the elite society of the time.
New Guard House 1816 It was Schinkel's first major commission in Berlin, is one of the first examples of German neoclassicism. The original idea of the building was as a guardhouse for the troops of the Crown Prince of Prussia. The building has a portico of Doric columns and has sculptural decoration in the form of trophies and captive warrior heads. The building is free on all sides, is approximately in the shape of a Roman castle, thus thefour sturdier corner towers and the inner courtyard.. The statues in the pediment of the building are intended as a memorial to Prussia's role in the Napoleonic Wars. It shows the goddess of victory, Nike.
Bank of England Soane was the architect of the Bank of England and this success proved the starting point of his prosperous career. He was required to practically rebuild the entire building, a task which involved many difficulties due to the character and form of the site. The architectural style which he employed for the structure was a Roman Corinthian that can be found in the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli .This magnificent building occupied forty-five years of his life, with great attention to construction and detail he manage to make it unique, dignified and practical, that place him among a small group of architectural innovators. In his work he concentrates on the lighting and detailing of internal spaces that make the place more religious. He frequently incorporated segmental arches and shallow domes which he emphasized with color and linear ornamentation.
Once more the two building above have some commons, there are two majors works of the architects, that gave them a lot of money and reputation. The front site of the two buildings is mainly covert with columns that , showing the change of style.
Dulwich art gallery1811 Soane had accepted the project of a gallery and a mausoleum for the family Desenfans. The requirement for the gallery was to be of stock brick, with Portland stone dressings."The same stone was used for the lanterns, vases and sarcophagi over the mausoleum"[3]. For the interior Soane create five main areas for the paintings, each lit by a lantern with a flat top which deflected the light from its glazed side lights.
Altes Museum The main building element is the grand staircase and the ionic columns that are in the front elevation of the structure and the walls, base and ceiling are like a frame around them, a series of columns set in front of the wall can always set a relationship between roof and ground. In the middle of the building there Schinkel design a hemisphere dome, an exact, model on the Roman Pantheon. The dome was made invisible to the exterior.
For the Gallery Soane used the sunlight to create this amazing interior and the five main areas are surrounded with light that is coming from the ceiling without to destroying the paintings. In the other hand Schinkel had design a dome in the middle of the structure.
Friedrichswerder Church The church was build with red brick facade, with a Gothic style but as simple as possible. "The gable roof typical of medieval churches is missing and a parapet hides the flat roof. Shinkel did not use the Gothic pointed spires, but cubic towers inspired by the English Decorated style. The delicate interior of the church contrast with the exterior of the building. The colored building materials and the paint-work together with the upward striving architectural form a harmonious whole." [4]
HOLY TRINITY Church 1824 The second church that Soane design. The building has a north-south orientation, one single tower in the middle of the frond site of the building that clearly was inspired from the Robert Adams twin towers for the church at Mistley. There is a large crypt beneath the church with impressive vaulting. in the entrance Soane introduce two stone corner staircases with iron balustrades to the east and west.
The two buildings are having differences as the exterior of Schinkel's churg is from red brick that took from his trip to England and for Soane's church the exterior is from stone and marble, in Soanes church the entrance has four columns in roman style.
Bank of England[1] Altes Museum[2]
Sir John Soane Architect, Dorothy Stroud,Faber and Faber Limited,1984,p31
Sir John Soane Architect, Dorothy Stroud,Faber and Faber Limited,1984,p149
Sir John Soane Architect, Dorothy Stroud,Faber and Faber Limited,1984,p203
K. F. Schinkel 1781-1841: an architect in the service of beauty,Martin Steffens,p57
Illustrations
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Bank_of_England_-_Soane%27s_rotunda_edited.jpg
http://imagecache6.allposters.com/LRG/21/2128/YAKED00Z.jpg
