Karl Schwanzer
Karl Schwanzer (born May 21, 1918 in Vienna ; † August 20, 1975 there ) was an Austrian architect . He was an important representative of post-war architecture, not only in Austria.
Life
education
Karl Schwanzer studied architecture at the Vienna University of Technology and received his diploma in 1940. In 1941 he started working on New Building in Liberated Upper Silesia. The ring in Sohrau . Dissolution and design doctorate. The aim of the work, according to the preface, was to give the small Polish town from 1920 to 1939 "a purely German face" again.
Architectural activity
In 1947, Schwanzer opened his own studio. At the beginning of his activity as a freelance architect, the projects to be worked on were modest. The business portals and facilities as well as exhibitions, which formed the basis of the orders in the first few years, were, however, processed with an enormous amount of energy, diligence and inventiveness, no matter how small the tasks were. Participation in national and international competitions and the success associated with it resulted in a continuous expansion of the studio and an increase in the number of employees. The international recognition of the office is based on the way of working and the approach to architecture in this office, whose guiding principle was “Quality takes precedence over earnings”. With the endeavor to put the satisfactory success of the projects above his own economic success, he gave the essential impulses even for the smallest tasks and checks the adherence to the qualitative level required by him during further processing. The processing of a project in his studio was an acid test for every employee involved. Schwanzer, always looking for the one hundred percent, spared neither the mental nor the physical strength of his employees from the receipt of an order to be processed until completion. At the beginning of a given task there is the will to find a new, original idea in architectural and functional terms. "Hour after hour, day after day, and again and again at night, we designed, discussed, changed, discarded and started all over again."
In the short creative period from 1947 to 1975, he developed a large number of striking structures. The shape of his buildings was always closely related to the function as well as the construction. This led to the fact that he often left the straight lines of the time behind and treaded new paths in architecture. He was also a furniture and object designer and founded the Austrian Institute for Design . In 1967 he founded a second studio in Munich.
Teaching
From 1947 to 1951 Schwanzer was an assistant in Oswald Haerdtl's architecture class at the Academy of Applied Arts Vienna . In 1959 he became a full professor at the Vienna University of Technology and director of the Institute for Building Design and Design and has trained a large number of internationally recognized architects over a decade and a half. In 1965/66 he was dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture.
He was also a sought-after visiting professor at various universities, such as the Technical University of Darmstadt (1964/65), the Technical University of Budapest (1967), and the University of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia (1972).
Private life
Schwanzer was married to Hilde Döltl and they had two sons. Schwanzer committed suicide on August 20, 1975 at the age of 57. He was buried in the Neustift cemetery in an honorary grave of the municipality of Vienna.
Buildings and projects
1962: Residence in Vienna
The house, built on a hillside with two residential floors, was connected to the garden level on the main floor and created variable room groupings using sliding wall elements. By avoiding fixed floor plans, a large-looking one-room living atmosphere was achieved, which achieved a high level of living intimacy through the choice of noble materials. The house called " Schwanzer " at Hawelgasse 23 in Vienna- Währing was demolished in April 2014.
1962–1964: Philips House in Vienna
The so-called Philipshaus, an office building of the Philips company , was built in 1962–1964 and 1969/1970 in a prominent location on the hilltop of the Wienerberg . The building is clamped in a striking form between four columns. The building is a listed building .
It reopened as PhilsPlace in 2018 ; the previous office space was converted into 135 serviced apartments .
1964: 20er Haus | Museum of the 20th Century Vienna
The steel frame building was originally set up as the Austria pavilion at the Brussels World Exhibition in 1958, with the square between pylons as a courtyard and the ground floor as a covered open space.
Changes to the Museum of Modern Art, which was initially only intended to be temporary, were made after it was rebuilt as a 20- person building in the Schweizergarten in Vienna: The scaffolding of the information pavilion was used for the entrance hall, office and staff rooms as well as a small exhibition room and a lecture hall. The courtyard was therefore closed (covered) and the ground floor was glazed. This now surrounds three courtyards for sculptures, so that the museum in the exhibition zone also has space that can be used for its purposes. The puristic conception of the building points to the connection to international standards. The building is a listed building and is advertised as Belvedere 21 by the operating museum, the Austrian Gallery (Belvedere).
1967: World Exhibition Montreal - Kindergarten of the City of Vienna
The building of the kindergarten of the city of Vienna at the Montreal Expo followed the idea of conveying the association with the world of the child to the viewer from the outside. As a result, a modular system, with its compelling simplicity, appeared to be the appropriate solution for the child. In the child himself, the toy elements of the building set known to him should arouse an inner relationship and affection for the atmosphere in the kindergarten community, which is still unfamiliar to him. He should be happy to enter the building dedicated to him, through which memories of building and playing with colorful building blocks are awakened in him and also gladly come back.
In contrast to the colorful outer appearance, the interior of the building was kept monochrome in order to allow the child to fully develop his imagination, through which he can create a world that corresponds to him, in which he alone creates and sets the colored accents.
The tried and tested room combination used by Vienna kindergartens in the floor plan was composed of a richly structured group room, the cloakroom and the sanitary facilities. In the group room there was a utility corner, a doll's corner, a building corner, a painter's corner and a few other departments that determine the child's play world. The interior opened into the open in the middle part of the building so that the interior and exterior could unite to form a common living space for the child.
1967: Austria Pavilion Montreal
In order to express the diversity of Austria in an impressive building, a design was chosen as a model that conveyed associations with crystalline structures. The design of the building, while at the same time reducing the components to typical basic elements, resulted in a possibility of variation, which in its geometric precision was reminiscent of the molecular structure of cube-shaped components of the crystals. Thoughts of mountains, gemstones and landscapes should be addressed as well as ideas of precision, geometry, technology and systematics. The order, which was imposed on the building by restricting it to similar triangular elements, nevertheless allowed a rich differentiation of the space without being schematized.
The prefabricated construction elements were developed from aluminum frames with infills made of aluminum panels and, as a self-supporting structure, formed the outer skin and the inner wall in one. The assembly of the triangular surface elements used, which could be put together again and again to form cube-like building blocks, resulted in a multitude of possible variations, which made the building appear lively, as growth and changes would be possible. The Austrian pavilion wanted to go beyond the actual requirement of being only a housing for objects and to advocate plastic and aggressive installation architecture with industrially prefabricated components.
1968: Project City Center Vienna (project)
The City Center was to close the Danube Canal between Marienbrücke and Schwedenbrücke on the first level , one floor was to be designed as a parking area, and the necessary pedestrian levels would then be arranged above, which are connected by footbridges to the sidewalks of the adjoining street. In the City Center, which is opened up by the light rail and a later subway station, you can directly board the city tour buses that start from the Tourist Center. But the direct bus connection to the airport would also be a good location here. Numerous boutiques and business premises that allow visitors to move up and down on several floors, similar to a large open department store, would bring metropolitan life to this point.
City Center could actually demonstrate that Vienna is located on the Danube, as one can directly board the ships from this City Center that carry out the round trips on the Danube river.
1970–1972: Parish Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Vienna-Donaustadt
The building complex consists of four circular areas, some of which overlap. The surrounding gardens are also structured with circular segments.
1972: Wifi St. Pölten
The teaching and workshop building of the economic development institute in St. Pölten should be constructed as a clear, easy-to-organize building in accordance with the functional requirements. In order to be able to take into account the ongoing changes in the commercial sector, production technology and thus in the course system and still achieve the greatest possible profitability, taking into account the respective degree of utilization, a flexible multifunctionality of the individual rooms and room groups had to be sought. The building is a listed building .
1973: BMW buildings in Munich
Administration building
Schwanzer arranged four three-quarter circles around a central shaft (elevators, stairwells, toilets and, above all, load-bearing functions), which are bulged four times in a semicircle, and which flow into one another. The load of the three-quarter circle floors was transferred to the central shaft by means of a suspension structure. This hanging solution enabled very slim supports and the simultaneous execution of structural and finishing work without complex scaffolding. The façade, made up of cast aluminum window elements, gains a strong three-dimensional depth thanks to the sloping reveals and the oppositely inclined windows. The concise "four-cylinder" forms a symbolic landmark that falls out of the usual office building repertoire.
BMW Museum
The museum has an approximately circular base area with a diameter of around 20 meters and expands upwards to form a flat roof of around 40 meters. From the entrance on the ground floor, a spiral path leads upwards in the building, the exhibits are located on the outwardly bulging shell. Four "islands" on the apparently freely hanging footpath allow further exhibition focuses. A central escalator, which runs freely through the room below, leads from the upper floor back to the ground floor.
The main idea behind the architectural design was the continuation of the “street” as a functional space for vehicles in a traffic structure that is encased in a shell. Schwanzer did not just want to create museum storage rooms for cars, but rather to give the medium of the automobile greater effectiveness in an adequate action space with a multimedia design that allows optimal memory images to take effect.
Parking garage
The multi-storey car park with its 1,600 spaces, which, together with the high-rise, the company building and the museum, has an effect on the urban reorganization of the southern company premises by setting a further idiosyncratic formal accent in this grouping of vertical, horizontal and arched building dimensions, stands out due to its unusual facade completely out of the context of the usual multi-storey car park architecture. Thanks to sensible planning and construction, the building could be assembled in a modular manner from just a few element types. In 2017 the parking garage was demolished and rebuilt, only the striking concrete facade remained in its original state.
1975: Austrian Embassy in Brasilia
The official character of this building is underlined by the symmetrical concept of the entire complex. In its external appearance, the building has a distinctive representational character of a country with a high cultural heritage; inside, the intimate atmosphere demonstrates hospitality and charm with restrained nobility.
The bright white structure in locally prefabricated lightweight concrete elements forms a strong accent between the clear blue of the sky and the red earth of Brazil. Towards the street, a low moat, in place of a high shield by plants or a fence, limits the property. The ground floor with its representative rooms extends almost like a bar over the full width of the property. On the cantilevered upper floor with living and working rooms, the all-round loggia shields the strong incidence of sunlight, but still allows a view of the embassy green area, which is modeled on the baroque garden art, and extends far into the landscape.
Awards and honors
- 1954 Josef Hoffmann honor of the Vienna Secession
- 1958 Silver Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria
- 1958 Grand Prix for Architecture at the Brussels World Exhibition
- 1959 City of Vienna Prize for Architecture
- 1963 Honorary Corresponding Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
- 1965 Officier du Mérite Touristique, France
- 1969 Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- 1969 Corresponding honorary member of the Association of German Architects (BDA)
- 1969 Grand Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria
- 1973 BDA Prize Bavaria
- 1974 Concrete architecture prize from the Federal Association of the German Cement Industry
- 1975 Grand Austrian State Prize for Architecture (posthumous)
- 2008 Name of Karl-Schwanzer-Gasse in Vienna- Favoriten
estate
On May 23, 2018, Karl Schwanzer's son Martin Schwanzer handed over 20 cubic meters of his father's materials, as well as furniture and models, to the Vienna Museum of the City of Vienna as part of a celebration . Karl Schwanzer's former assistant Günther Feuerstein took part in the celebration. The estate is now to be scientifically processed.
literature
- Alexander Krauss: Schwanzer, Karl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 796 f. ( Digitized version ).
- A passion for architecture - 25 years of work by Karl Schwanzer , modulverlag Vienna - Munich, 1973
- Decision on the form. Monograph of a building. modulverlag Vienna, Munich 1973
- Leonie Manhardt (ed.): Drei Bauten von / Three Buildings by Karl Schwanzer Photographed by / Photographs by Sigrid Neubert , Springer Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-211-23769-0
- DOCOMOMO Austria (ed.): Karl Schwanzer and the connection to the international avant-garde , Studienverlag Innsbruck / Wien / Bozen 2018, ISBN 978-3-7065-5924-9
- Benjamin Swiczinsky: Schwanzer - a passionate architect. Three decades of architecture and contemporary history , Birkhäuser Basel 2018, ISBN 978-3-0356-1852-5 , text and dramaturgical advice: Max Gruber
- Stefan Olah / Ulrike Matzer (eds.): Karl Schwanzer - traces / Traces: Eine Aufstandaufnahme / A Pictorial Inventory. Birkhäuser Basel 2019, ISBN 978-3035618396 .
Web links
- Karl Schwanzer. In: Architects Lexicon Vienna 1770–1945. Published by the Architekturzentrum Wien . Vienna 2007.
- Entry on Karl Schwanzer in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
- Literature by and about Karl Schwanzer in the catalog of the German National Library
- Karl Schwanzer. A passionate architect. 21erhaus, accessed on November 28, 2015 (picture by Karl Schwanzer and some of his buildings).
- Karl Schwanzer Archive in the Vienna Museum
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karl Schwanzer. In: Architects Lexicon Vienna 1770–1945. Published by the Architekturzentrum Wien . Vienna 2007.
- ^ Vienna - Währing: Demolition of the Karl-Schwanzer-House . In: Monument . News from the Monument Protection Initiative. No. 17 , 2014, ISSN 2219-2417 , p. 54 ( idms.at [PDF; accessed on August 5, 2017]).
- ↑ House Schwanzer, Hawelgasse. In: Margherita Spiluttini photo archive. Retrieved November 28, 2015 (images).
- ↑ Maik Novotny: Vorsorge-Regal am Wienerberg , in: Der Standard daily newspaper , Vienna, July 7, 2018, p. A 8
- ↑ Alfred Dürr: Milbertshofen - Everything stays different . Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 20, 2017, accessed on May 23, 2017.
- ^ Matthias Dusini: My papa is the greatest , in: Falter weekly newspaper , No. 22/2018, p. 24
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schwanzer, Karl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian architect and designer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 21, 1918 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vienna |
| DATE OF DEATH | 20th August 1975 |
| Place of death | Vienna |