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GÜNTHER DOMENIG, ELFRIEDE HUTH MENSA DER SCHULSCHWESTERN, 1973 - 1977 / 1989 Graz, Austria Images © Petr Šmídek

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The early modern architect Adolf Loos, who famously wrote “Ornament is a Crime,” also had a romantic streak, not unlike Carlo Mollino (see last week). In 1930 Adolf Loos completed two buildings: the (famous, urban) Müller House in Prague and the (not famous, rural) Landhaus Khuner (Khuner Villa) in Payerbach, Austria – two designs that could not be more different in appearance. While the Müller House is defined by an austere white cubic aesthetic, the Landhaus Khuner, is rustic, with log-and-stone construction sheltered under a pitched roof. The Müller House is hailed as a masterpiece of early modern architecture, while concerning the Landhaus Khuner, in contrast, there has developed only a sort of hush. We need to re-examine the Landhaus Khuner in order to embrace a broader understanding of what really constitutes architecture for today. You can visit, because today the house is a restaurant (and the colors are original).

#Adolf Loos #Landhaus Khuner #Austrian architecture #Rural modern architecture #Lodges

Boathouse, Fuscach, Austria - Marte. Marte Architects

https://www.marte-marte.com/

It is no exaggeration to call Roland Rainer the most influential architect in postwar Austria (and also beyond): as long-term professor at Akademie der bildenden Künst in Vienna, Vienna city planner from 1958 until 1963 and juror in countless competitions he was omnipresent way beyond the immediate postwar decades. But an aspect of his biography he studiously avoided to discuss was his involvement with German National Socialism although this period actually was formative for his architectural thinking and his postwar urban plannings. Rainer attended the „Deutsche Akademie für Städtebau, Reichs- und Landesplanung“ and acquired the knowledge he would apply in his quarter and urban plannings as well as numerous publications after the war. This notwithstanding several of his housing estates following the concept of a structured and dispersed city, among them „Am Mauerberg“ in Vienna or Puchenau near Linz, count among the best in postwar Austria.

In his final publication „Roland Rainer - Das Werk des Architekten 1927-2003: Vom Sessel zum Stadtraum: geplant errichtet verändert vernichtet“, published in 2004 by Springer, the architect again omits his origins but otherwise offers a broad overview of his massive oeuvre. For this Rainer dug deep in his personal archive and selected photographs (most of them by himself), plans, drawings, articles and interviews to document his work. Although the overall layout is quite dry the typologically ordered content offers deep and vivid insights into the architect’s work that as he documents was inspired as much by anonymous buildings in the Burgenland, Iran or China as it was by scientific research into dwelling units. Rainer in the first place was interested in the single-family row-house which he identified as the ideal, most compact and rational structure.

Although the book by its very nature doesn’t offer a critical evaluation of Roland Rainer’s oeuvre it nonetheless is a great point of departure for critical discussions of individual projects and plannings.

#roland rainer #monograph #architecture #austria #architecture book #architectural history #book #austrian architecture