The twentieth century was unkind to Vienna. The capital of the Habsburg empire till 1918, it was, by early 1989, a bleak and battered outpost inside touching distance of the iron curtain. Now that town has undeniably recaptured its glory of previous (symbolically, its inhabitants grew to 2 million final yr, its pre-first world conflict imperial inhabitants), it may appear counterintuitive to go to it for its modernist structure. However this can be a extremely rewarding endeavour, particularly if one needs to keep away from an overdose of Sachertorte (chocolate cake), horse-drawn carriages, flamboyant church buildings and palaces, and imperial tat.
Viennese Modernism, or Die Wiener Moderne, started a lot sooner than its European counterparts. As early as 1895, probably the most distinguished architect of the day, Otto Wagner, introduced the tip of historicist and romanticist structure, which had dominated the earlier many years – there was to be no extra neoclassical, neo-baroque, neo-gothic or neo-Renaissance.
Two years later, the Vienna Secession emerged. An Austrian model of artwork nouveau, one in every of its essential proponents was Wagner himself. It’s nonetheless extensively seen, within the type of the Vienna Stadtbahn stations (particularly at Karlsplatz), or the colorful Linke Wienzeile Buildings (Nos 38 and 40). Later, within the 1900s, got here the sumptuous Kirche am Steinhof, and the extra starkly useful Österreichische Postsparkasse off the Ring. His second villa, Villa Wagner II (14th district), is a paragon of sobriety, constructed subsequent to his earlier, extra extravagant, dwelling, the predictably named Villa Wagner I. The primary was erected in 1888 and the second in 1913, thus spanning an important years of his profession and providing a hanging distinction between the pre-modern and fashionable eras.
By the tip of the Twenties Josef Hoffman had turned his consideration to social housing, and inspired younger architects reminiscent of Le Corbusier
Lots of Wagner’s college students and proteges turned key architects of Vienna Modernism, most notably Joseph Maria Olbrich, the architect of the famend Secession Constructing by Karlsplatz. Josef Hoffmann, one other founding father of the Secession who studied below Wagner, was a prolific architect who got here to concentrate on villas, that are nonetheless dotted across the Viennese panorama: except for the Villa Skywa-Primavesi within the upmarket thirteenth district, he constructed a number of homes within the much more prosperous nineteenth district, together with the Haus Knips, and the Haus Eduard Ast. By the tip of the Twenties and within the early 30s, he had turned his consideration to social housing, and inspired younger architects reminiscent of Le Corbusier.
Max Fabiani was one other pupil of Wagner’s who labored on the Stadtbahn and left an indelible mark on Vienna. Apart from the unmistakable Urania constructing by the Danube, his stunning Artaria-Haus on the distinguished Kohlmarkt within the Outdated City is a real outlier on the road, harking back to the “Slovene artwork nouveau” he created and exported to Ljubljana. His Haus Portois & Repair within the third district is no doubt probably the most fascinating, avant-garde and unique buildings in Vienna. It’s arduous to think about what individuals made from it on the time, in 1901.
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Adolf Loos was well-known for his ‘scandalous’ Looshaus within the Outdated City
In addition to Otto Wagner and his followers, probably the most well-known exponent of Vienna modernist structure was the Brno-born Adolf Loos, who, having briefly dabbled with the Secession motion, shortly turned his again on it, searching for a much less ornate, stripped-down type of structure (nonetheless concealing wealthy interiors), which shortly made him controversial and set him aside from his Viennese contemporaries. Most well-known for his “scandalous” Looshaus within the Outdated City. Loos’s break from the consensus was significantly noticeable in works such because the Haus Steiner (Sankt-Veit-Gasse 10) from 1910, the 1913 Haus Scheu and the little-known Haus Rufer Home from 1922, all three within the thirteenth district, and all three harking back to conventional modernist actions elsewhere in Europe.
The listing is way from exhaustive and walks by way of the centre, or thirteenth, 14th and nineteenth districts particularly will undoubtedly reward admirers of recent structure.