Anna-Lülja Praun

Anna-Lülja Praun (born Simidoff, born May 29, 1906 in Saint Petersburg ; † September 28, 2004 in Vienna ) was an Austrian architect and designer . She was one of the female pioneers of Austrian architecture and was one of the first women to study architecture in Austria.

Life and work

Anna-Lülja Simidoff was the daughter of a Russian gynecologist and a Bulgarian lawyer. She moved with her family first to Sofia , then to Switzerland and, according to her own assessment , grew up multilingual, liberal and cosmopolitan .

In 1924 she began studying architecture at the Technical University in Graz with Friedrich Zotter and Wunibald Deininger . From 1930 to 1936 she lived and worked with the Styrian architect and staunch socialist Herbert Eichholzer .

In 1937 she worked in Clemens Holzmeister's studio in Vienna. She was involved in the projects for the parliament in Ankara and the festival hall in Salzburg . In 1938 she was arrested after the “Anschluss” , but released the same day after her apartment was searched. She then lived in France and Bulgaria and did not return to Vienna until 1942. In the same year she married the architect Richard Praun, who came from a carpentry dynasty, with whom she designed furniture together. In 1943, her former partner Eichholzer was murdered as a "communist" by the Nazi regime.

In 1947 Praun worked on the restoration of the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, which was badly damaged in the war . From 1952 she had her own studio in Vienna. She designed houses, facilities, shops, furniture, lighting fixtures and ceramics (these together with Gudrun Baudisch ). From 1953 to 1959 she worked in parallel to work in her own studio in the furniture store "House and Garden" founded by Josef Frank in 1925 . The house of gallery owners Sailer in Salzburg bears their signature. In 1959 Anna-Lülja Praun designed a "bench to rest" for the conductor Herbert von Karajan in the unmistakable Praun style, which the architecture critic Otto Kapfinger characterized in a speech at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in 1999 as follows:

The secret of Anna-Lülja Praun's interior designs and objects lies in a modernity distilled from life experience and craftsmanship, which is committed to time and spirit, but not to any zeitgeist; lies in a simplicity that never took on a life of its own as purism ; lies in a sophisticated functioning that differs from the striking formulaic character of functionalism ; and in an artistic spirit that balances elegance and comfort.

Her motto was:

The form must be valid as long as the material lasts.

With the composer György Ligeti , she rebuilt his house and designed the entire interior. This is where the high desk that was tailor-made for Ligeti comes from . She worked for Wolfgang Denzel , whose houses, shops and yachts she furnished.

Anna-Lülja Praun died on September 28, 2004 in her house in Josefstadt in Vienna. She was buried at the Grinzinger Friedhof (group 4, number 26). In 2006, on the occasion of her 100th birthday, a memorial plaque was placed on the house where she lived and worked until her death. The architect's entire estate is in the Museum of Applied Arts (Vienna) .

honors and awards

1981 City of Vienna Prize for Applied Arts.
1997 Award of honorary membership of the ÖGFA - Austrian Society for Architecture in a ceremony in the columned hall of the MAK.
1999 Honored by the Bulgarian Minister of Culture Emma Moskova in the Bulgarian Cultural Institute, Haus Wittgenstein, Vienna.
2001 Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st class.
2002 honorary doctorate from TU Graz

Exhibitions

1986 Exhibition in the Würthle Gallery, Vienna, on his 80th birthday. Organized and curated by Aneta Bulant-Kamenova and Dany Denzel.
1994 Exhibition in the Gadenstätter Gallery, Zell am See.
1996 Exhibition in the Serafin Gallery, Vienna.
1997 Exhibition in the bookstore Minerva, Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna. Organized by ÖGFA - Austrian Society for Architecture, curated by Judith Eiblmayr.
1999 Festival exhibition in the Sailer Gallery, Salzburg.
2001 Exhibition "Furniture in Balance - Work and Life Show" in Haus Wittgenstein in Vienna, on the occasion of his 95th birthday. Project management and organization Lisa Fischer, curation and design Judith Eiblmayr. This traveling exhibition could also be seen in Salzburg, 2001, Graz, 2002 and Sofia, 2002.

Publications

1986 "Anna-Lülja Praun - Furniture, Equipment and Buildings", exhibition catalog, edited by Aneta Bulant-Kamenova and Dany Denzel.
1996 as above, extended 2nd edition, edited by Aneta Bulant-Kamenova and Dany Denzel.
2001 "Furniture in Balance", exhibition catalog for the exhibition of work and life, edited by Lisa Fischer and Judith Eiblmayr.
2008 "Development lines and principles in the work of Anna-Lülja Praun", diploma thesis Martina Kandeler-Fritsch.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Praun, Anna-Lülja
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian architect and designer
DATE OF BIRTH	May 29, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH	St. Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH	September 28, 2004
Place of death	Vienna