Hundertwasser in Vienna
Hundertwasser House, completed in 1985
The artist, architect, writer and environmentalist Friedrich Stowasser (1928-2000) was better known as Hundertwasser. He agreed with fellow visionary architect Antoni Gaudi that there are “no straight lines in nature”, but went much further by calling the straight line – whether it be in architecture, thinking or the school system – “the rotten foundation of our doomed civilization”. Many of his opinions, perhaps once deemed eccentric, now seem sadly prophetic – he was an outspoken eologist, campaigner against nuclear power and his architecture sought to be in harmony with nature (for other architects this may mean a few trees and bushes – for Hundertwasser it meant having sheep grazing on the roof; the living green roof concept was invented by him).
Vienna is a city full of amazing architecture; Baroque, Art Nouveau and Imperial, amongst others, but none impresses more than Hundertwasser’s, so unexpected, playful and creative they are. Born in Vienna in 1928, Hundertwasser studied fine art at the city’s Academy of Fine Arts.
Thereafter he travelled extensively and lived in a variety of places, including a farm in Normandy, Uganda and the latter part of his life in New Zealand. Though initially known as a painter (who designed everything from stamps to flags), he is perhaps now more famous as an eccentric, visionary architect and environmentalist.
Hundertwasser designed four buildings in Vienna: the Kunst Haus Wien (Hundertwasser museum), Hundertwasser House (Hundertwasserhaus), a landing stage for a canal and the Spittelau municipal incinerator (I like it when municipal buildings look as good as cathedrals – in London there’s Bazalgette’s Crossness Pumping Station – which, indeed, was called by Pesvner “a Victorian cathedral of ironwork” – and there’s another fabulous post-modern pumping station on the Isle of Dogs designed by John Outram).
All Hundertwasser’s architecture is characterised by curved forms, bright colours and natural features – both the Hundertwasser museum and house have trees growing out of windows. These are what Hundertwasser called ‘tree tenants’ who are ‘the Ambassadors of the Free Forests in the City’. The artist understandably believed the city, with its cars and concrete, suffocated people and their relationship with nature.
Hundertwasser House
Hundertwasser House (above and below)
Hundertwasser museum (above and below)
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