Abstract

As a result of his highly successful publication Bauentwurfslehre (1936), Ernst Neufert presented a system of measurement that he claimed had universal validity, his so called octameter system in 1941. Every necessary dimension is expressed as a multiple or a fraction of the basic unit of 12.5 cm. He stated that once the design process, the schedules of rooms and many other parameters would become rational and efficient.

Moreover, the question is to what extent the octameter system constitutes a set of rules in the sense of Vitruvian order. Can architecture become legible in the mechanisms of form-making that the system practices? Is the octameter system useful in the communication of meaning or criticism, or is its effectiveness limited to simplifying construction procedures by pursuing standardization and serialization of architectural production?

Neufert’s system became widely disseminated. The architecture faculty building at the University of Innsbruck is an example: it demonstrates how thoroughly Neufert’s octameter division was applied to the finest detail, as a universal frame of reference. Thereby it becomes clear that Neufert’s norm is indeed in a position to transfer formal origination into the realm of cultural action.

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