Luigi Blue

Luigi Blau (born January 3, 1945 in Mistelbach ), grew up and is still based in Vienna today , is an Austrian architect , furniture designer and exhibition designer . He is married to Burgtheater director Karin Bergmann .

Training and work

From 1966 to 1973, Blau studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where he attended the master class of the renowned architect Ernst A. Plischke .

Even during his training, he designed furniture, buildings and interior fittings, some of which were also implemented. Following on from the concepts of classical modernism , he developed his own formal language early on , which - despite some extensions - was recognizable in his later works. He was particularly influenced by his teacher Plischke, Adolf Loos and Josef Frank , the co-founder of the Austrian Werkbund . Since the 1980s, he has occasionally loosened up his strict, straight and round shapes, especially in his furniture designs, with playful, post-modern- inspired details.

Blau was soon regarded as one of the most important contemporary architects in Austria and won numerous tenders . For many years he was involved in the so-called Viennese street furniture project; He not only designed and realized residential buildings , renovated commercial buildings, cultural buildings and urban facilities to match the respective style, but also designed squares and streets, for example with telephone booths, tram shelters, benches and flower pots. Litter bins, clothes containers, kiosks, and even a toilet facility in Vienna's Rathauspark , were also created based on his designs.

By September 2005, he redesigned a section of the Favoritenstrasse pedestrian zone in Favoriten (10th district of Vienna) . Traces of his work can also be found in many places in downtown Vienna. Blau did not make any major changes to the grown cityscape, but set clearly visible accents that harmoniously combine the old with elements of the modern .

Since the late 1970s he has organized several exhibitions in Viennese museums , most recently in 2004 at the Wien Museum Schiele & Roessler . The artist and his sponsor.

For Blau, an apartment is not a work of art . However, he considers it essential to design the living space carefully and functionally, as it represents a part of the culture of the individual and can contribute to cultivation. In the list of his works, the complexity of his work, supported by artistic intention, becomes clear.

Awards

• 1993 City of Vienna Prize for Architecture

Works

• Table, steel and glass, 1970
• Renovation and interior design of the Klewan Gallery in Vienna, 1970–1971
• New construction and furnishing of a residential building in Zell am See , 1972–1973
• Functional furniture for a doctor's practice, Vienna, 1976
• Organization of the exhibition The Unknown Collection at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), Vienna, 1979
• Wooden armchair (in Germany: wooden chair and wooden chair with leather), 1980. A red-stained wooden armchair is on display in the Imperial Furniture Collection, Vienna Furniture Museum .
• Reconstruction and furnishing of a house on the Attersee , 1979–1981
• Renovation and interior decoration of Demmers Teehaus , Vienna 1., Mölker Bastei 5, 1981
• Fauteuil (in Germany: armchair), 1984
• Artistic realization of the exhibition Magic of Medusa. European mannerisms in the Künstlerhaus Vienna , 1985–1987
• Floor lamp with table, stool and nesting tables
• Renovation and interior design of the Dorotheum branch in Vienna's 18th district , Währinger Strasse 134, 1987–1988
• Artistic realization of the exhibition Merkur and the museums about Leipzig , in the Künstlerhaus Vienna , 1988–1989
• Work in the context of street furniture , Vienna, from 1989, among other things, waiting shelters (in Vienna: waiting shelters) for bus and tram stops, telephone booth, kiosk, bench, old clothes container, waste bins, flower bins, public toilet facilities (1st, Rathauspark ), etc.
• Renovation and interior design of the Ronacher Theater , Vienna, built at the end of the 19th century , 1992–1993
• Renovation and interior design of the Lapinski café-bar , Vienna, 1994–1995
• Redesign of the ticket office in Schönbrunn Palace , Vienna, 1994–1996
• Redesign of Siebenbrunnenplatz in the 5th district of Vienna , 1997–1998
• Design and interiors of the new Vienna Tourist Information of the Vienna Tourist Board , first, Tegetthoffstraße / Maysedergasse ( Albertina Square ), 1999-2000 (2014 newly designed by other architects)
• Reconstruction of the entrance and interior design of the restaurant in the Burgtheater , Vienna, 1999–2000
• Design of the stage entrance in the Burgtheater, Vienna, 2002
• Planning the exhibition Schiele & Roessler. The artist and his sponsor at the Wien Museum , 2002–2004
• With Gabriele Kaiser, Friedrich Achleitner , Alessandro Alverà, Hermann Czech , Hubert Egger, Heinz Frank, Georg Friedler, Roland Hagemüller, Helmut Hemperl: Ernst Anton Plischke, architect and teacher , Salzburg 2003
• Redesign of the Favoritenstrasse pedestrian zone between Columbusplatz and Südtiroler Platz in Vienna's 10th district, 2004–2005
• New construction, conversion, renovation and interior design of numerous residential buildings and villas in Vienna and other cities.

literature

• Ernst A. Plischke Prize. Pustet, Salzburg 2008
• Architect Luigi Blau - Houses, Intérieurs Street Furniture - Contributions to a Building Culture 1967–2002. Edited by Matthias Boeckl, with essays by Friedrich Achleitner, Matthias Boeckl, Francesco Collotti, Otto Kapfinger, Dietmar Steiner and Liesbeth Waechter-Böhm. Vienna, 2003, ISBN 3-211-83896-1 - lavishly illustrated, contains the complete catalog raisonné for this period.
• Vienna Furniture - Vienna Furniture . Exhibition catalog, Vienna, 1989, ISBN 3-900803-22-6
• Tobias G. Natter / Ursula Storch (eds.): Schiele & Roessler. The artist and his sponsor. Art and Networking in the Early 20th Century. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2004, ISBN 3-7757-1479-0 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Luigi Blau in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. Jump up ↑ Gabriele Kaiser, Friedrich Achleitner, Alessandro Alverà, Luigi Blau, Hermann Czech, Hubert Egger, Heinz Frank, Georg Friedler, Roland Hagemüller, Helmut Hemperl: Ernst Anton Plischke, architect and teacher , Salzburg 2003
2. ↑ Furniture by Luigi Blau. In: Wien Möbel - Vienna Furniture . Exhibition catalog, Vienna 1989
3. ^ City of Vienna: Favoritenstrasse. The new pedestrian zone , Vienna 2005, PDF file ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Tobias G. Natter, Ursula Storch (Ed.): Schiele & Roessler. The artist and his sponsor. Art and Networking in the Early 20th Century. Ostfildern-Ruit 2004
5. ^ Architect Luigi Blau - Houses, Intérieurs Street Furniture - Contributions to a Building Culture 1967–2002 . Vienna 2003
6. ↑ Luigi Blau. In: arch INFORM ; Retrieved January 13, 2010.