The younger architects working for Wagner began to form their own practices around the turn of the century. In the same way, Wagner designed the fonts so that the holy water would flow continuously, thus remaining uncontaminated. The Postal Savings Bank featured a glass-roofed banking hall, the roof suspended by cables and heated in the winter with electricity to prevent the buildup of snow, while the nave and altar of the church at the Steinhof was confined to a single space, without intervening columns or other supports so that nothing would block the views or create places where germs could “hide” and spread infection. These buildings were characterized by their advanced construction and detailing, but, even more, they expressed novel ideas about function. Wagner would go on to design and build groundbreaking works, foremost among them the church at the Steinhof psychiatric hospital and the Postal Savings Bank on the Ringstrasse in Vienna. Several future luminaries of modern architecture worked in Wagner’s office at that time: Olbrich, Hoffmann, and the young Jože Plečnik. Wagner combined these with a radically innovative style, a pared down variant of classicism merged with Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil. It was Wagner, born in 1841, who would first formulate what was to become Austria’s special contribution to modern architecture.īeginning in the mid 1890s, while carrying out the commission for the new urban railway - the Stadtbahn - in Vienna, he introduced novel ideas for buildings: the bold use of the latest materials, including iron, glass, and concrete. only need to continue this tradition, in contrast to other countries.” As early as 1926, Josef Frank, who was among the leading Austrian modernists of the inter-war period, discussed a “protracted tradition” in the country of experiments with new forms in an article: “The architects Otto Wagner, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos, and others had a marked impact on European architecture already long before the war.Works were created that lead in a direct line to those of the present day. Modern architecture has had a remarkably long and rich history in Austria. Top Photo: Coop Himmelb(l)au, Apartment Building Gasometer B, Vienna, 2001. Duccio Malagamba Modern Architecture in Austria Special Legacy
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