The first Goetheanum was an extraordinary double-domed structure built largely of wood, completed around 1919. It was destroyed by fire on the night of New Year's Eve 1922–23.
Rudolf Steiner responded by designing a second building — this time in moulded, cast concrete — turning a fireproof material into flowing, organic form. Steiner died in 1925, before its completion, and the building was finished and opened in 1928. It remains a landmark of expressionist and organic architecture.
Rather than straight lines and right angles, the façades curve, fold and taper — an attempt to let a building grow like a living, metamorphosing form in Goethe's sense.