Anton Potyka

Café-Restaurant-Cobenzl in December 2016. Built from 1951 to 1952 according to the plans of Anton Potyka as Hans Huebner's bar and café pavilion on the terrace in front of the Cobenzl restaurant, which in 1980 partially burned down.

Anton Potyka (born February 19, 1899 in Pula , Croatia , then Pola , Austria-Hungary ; † March 2, 1973 in Vienna ) was an Austrian architect . He was best known for his designs and implementations of local and business facilities in Vienna and for the construction and design of the two main buildings of the former Central Savings Bank of the Municipality of Vienna .

Life

Anton Potyka was born in 1899 as the son of the officer and private scholar Hugo Potyka and his wife Anna Florido di Prata in Pola, today's Pula in Istria , and spent the first years of his life there.

After the Realschule Krottenbachstraße in Vienna 19, he decided to study architecture at the Technical University of Vienna , which he graduated with a diploma in 1923. Anton Potyka received his practical training as an employee of the construction management of the National Bank in Vienna and during his work in various architecture studios in the city. In the early 1920s he also attended a few seminars with Adolf Loos in his building school. His work in the office of Otto Polak-Hellwig , who built the famous “Heimhof” single-kitchen house (Vienna 15, Pilgerimgasse 22–24) in the early 1920s, should be emphasized . Anton Potyka moved into this residential building with his wife Friederike and son Hugo in 1929. In the same year Anton Potyka went self-employed and from 1930 worked at the advice center for housing subsidies of the Austrian Association for Housing Reform, headed by Otto Polak-Hellwig.

As was often the case in the period after the First World War, Anton Potyka included interiors as well as business and coffee house furnishings among the first independent works. They were created in a joint venture with Franz Jakubecki, whom he had known since he was a student. This very successful partnership in the 1930s did not end until Jakubecki was drafted at the beginning of the Second World War.

As early as 1935, the Potyka family moved from Heimhof to a studio apartment in the 9th district of Vienna in Porzellangasse 39. The studio was also moved there from the 1st district.

During the Nazi era , Anton Potyka, who spent all these years in Vienna, worked for various armaments companies. Among other things, designs were created for an aerated concrete factory, a locomotive factory and the Dräger works in Vienna-Brigittenau. Just like the new planning for the Liesing industrial district, however, all of these projects remained just paper. After the Second World War, Anton Potyka devoted himself to the design of modern local and commercial buildings and the construction of numerous residential and commercial buildings for a wide variety of clients. His son Hugo, who had completed his architecture degree in 1953, acted as an employee. The collaboration ended after a dispute in 1960.

Anton Potyka was active until the end of his life. His son Hugo completed the last buildings after Potyka, who had already been awarded the honorary title of professor in the 1960s, died of a heart attack at the age of 74. He was buried at the Döblinger Friedhof .

plant

Anton Potyka is still associated with two completely different building tasks that make up his significance in Austrian architecture: On the one hand, it concerns his local and business facilities and, on the other hand, the construction and design of the two main buildings of the former central savings bank of the municipality of Vienna.

Potyka had already developed into a sought-after coffee house architect in the mid-1930s and was able to build on his successes again after the Second World War. For around 20 years he worked as the in-house architect of the Hübner gastronomy dynasty, whose properties included the Schlosshotel am Cobenzl , the Parkhotel Schönbrunn , the Kursalon in the Stadtpark and the Splendide Bar across from St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna . According to his son Hugo, Anton Potyka always had to work for Hans Huebner in Italy. Unfortunately, nothing more is documented here, only a draft for a hotel project in Ragusa has been preserved. The Italian espresso architecture is likely to have had a lasting influence on the architect.

Anton Potyka's gastronomy designs in the early 1950s, such as the Espresso Stambul in downtown Vienna and the Espresso Rainer in the Hotel Erzherzog Rainer in Wiedner Hauptstrasse - the so-called "Rainer-Diele" - attracted particular public attention . They were created around the same time as Oswald Haerdtl's famous cafés and espressos for the Arabia company. On the one hand, the Espresso Rainer was separated into a bar and a seating area by a transverse bench, and on the other hand, the room was reconnected to a unit by the undulating, freely hanging stucco ceiling. Wire figures by Rudolf Hoflehner in illuminated niches behind the seats and a black and white sgraffito wall behind the bar gave the room its special atmosphere.

Potyka's sensitive handling of space can also be observed in other building projects. In the new building of the Central Savings Bank of the Municipality of Vienna on Wipplingerstraße (Vienna 1, 1953–1956), which contains the bank rooms on the lower floors and apartments on the upper floors, Anton Potyka was faced with a deep lot and two narrow window fronts. By gutting the adjacent courtyard area and merging the inner courtyards, he achieved good lighting for all rooms on this plot, which is difficult to build on.

Anton Potyka made a name for himself early on with his varied and imaginative design and the skilful use of existing components. Regardless of whether it is in cafés, bank buildings or residential buildings, his confident use of space, light and color in the interior is noticeable, which was not least achieved by creating different areas in the room. Another characteristic that can be mentioned is the very close collaboration between Anton Potykas and painters and sculptors in many of his buildings.

Residential and commercial buildings (selection)

• Beach house Fritz Keller in the Strombad Kritzendorf, Kritzendorf, Donaulände 12, Lower Austria (with Fritz Keller) (1929)
• Residential building of the municipality of Vienna, Vienna 12, Karl-Löwe-Gasse 4 (1929–1930)
• Mudrak House, St. Andrä-Wölker, Lower Austria (1930)
• Manwart House (1933)
• House Pfeiferer (1934)
• Huebner House, Rohrbach an der Gölsen, Lower Austria (1934–1935)
• Studio apartment Potyka (ongoing expansion), Vienna, Porzellangasse 3 (from 1935)
• House Fröhlich, Vienna 13 (with Fritz Jakubecki) (1936)
• Housing complex of the municipality of Vienna (Franz-Novy-Hof), Vienna 16, Koppstraße 97–101 (with Franz Gomsi, Erich Kaindl, Friedrich Lang and Friedrich Novotny, among others) (1950–1954)
• Langschwert House, Vienna (1951)
• Children's fashion Prinzess, Vienna 1, Kohlmarkt (with Hugo Potyka) (1951)
• Housing complex of the municipality of Vienna (Karl-Frey-Hof), Vienna 15, Hütteldorfer Straße 81a (with Alois Brunner, Karl Eckenstorfer and Norbert Mandl) (1953–1954)
• Residence for the Austrian Post and Telegraph Directorate, Vienna 17, Rosensteingasse 81–93 (with Hans envelope) (1953–1955)
• Head office of the Central Savings Bank of the Municipality of Vienna (residential and office building), Vienna 1, Wipplingerstraße 4–6 (with Hugo Potyka and Hans envelope) (1953–1956)
• BUWOG residential complex, Vienna 19, Nußwaldgasse 13 (with Hugo Potyka and Ottokar Uhl) (1955)
• House Holfs, Vienna 19, Glanzinggasse 22 (155-1956)
• Lower Austria fire damage insurance, renovation of Palais Batthyany, Vienna 1, Herrengasse 19 (with Hugo Potyka) (1955)
• House Potyka, Vienna 19, Zuckerkandlgasse 13 (1955–1956)
• Extension of Mandl House, Schwarzau im Gebirge, Lower Austria (1956)
• Housing complex of the municipality of Vienna, Vienna 16, Arltgasse 2–16 (with Anny Beranek and Hans Gass) (1956)
• BUWOG residential complex, Vienna 16, Liebhartstalstrasse (1957)
• Conversion of the fire damage house, Horn, Lower Austria (with Hugo Potyka and Hans Mantel) (1950s)
• Maisonette residential building for the young generation, Vienna 10, Sonnwendgasse / Scheugasse (1958)
• Residential and office building for the Dorotheum, Vienna 2, Obere Donaustraße (1958)
• Residential building of the municipality of Vienna, Vienna 6, Kaunitzgasse 15–17 (1965–1967)
• Dorotheum Graz (conversion of an existing house), Graz, Jakominiplatz 7–9, Styria. (with Franz Comsi) (1969)
• Residential house of the municipality of Vienna, Vienna 6, Mollardgasse (around 1970)
• Housing complex of the municipality of Vienna (Karl-Holoubek-Hof), Vienna 15, Schwendergasse 39–41 (completed by Hugo Potyka) (1972–1976)

Public buildings (selection)

• Renner Bridge over the Schwarza, Gloggnitz, Lower Austria (1929)
• Café-Bar Splendide, Vienna 1, Jasomirgottstraße 3 (with Franz Jakubecki) (1936)
• Conversion of the Grand-Hotel Bauer, Bad Ischl, Upper Austria (1936–1937)
• Hübners Schlosshotel Cobenzl, Vienna 19 (with Franz Jakubecki) (1937)
• Boarding school, Aflenz, Styria. (1937)
• School camp, Atzenbrugg, Lower Austria (1940)
• Spuhl Sanatorium, Semmering, Lower Austria (1944)
• Community and cooperative house, Mold, Lower Austria (1946)
• Hübner's bar and café pavilion Am Cobenzl, Vienna 19, Am Cobenzl (1951–1952)
• Adaptation of the Cobenzl terraces, Vienna 19, Am Cobenzl (with Hugo Potyka) (1959–1960)
• Municipal day care center, Vienna 17, Roggendorfgasse 2 (with Hugo Potyka) (1959–1960)
• Extension of the office wing of the Lower Austrian Insurance Company, Vienna 1, Bankgasse (completed by Hugo Potyka) (1973)

Industrial and commercial buildings

• Stubach power plant near Salzburg (no year)

Interior design and design (selection)

• Hübners Meierei Cobenzl - terrace development, Vienna 19, Am Cobenzl (1934)
• Reconstruction and furnishing of the "Bijou" bar in the Parkhotel Schönbrunn , Vienna 13, Hietzinger Hauptstrasse 11–16 (with Franz Jakubecki) (1935)
• Café Mozart - conversion and furnishing, Vienna 1, Albertinaplatz (with Franz Jakubecki) (1935)
• Café Colibri, Vienna 7, Mariahilfer Strasse (1935)
• Furnishing for Amon Göth, Vienna, Schelleingasse (around 1936)
• Café Splendid and Bar "Baby Splendid", Vienna 1, Jasomirgottstraße (1937)
• Exhibition "Palace of the History of the Earth", World Exhibition Paris (with Franz Jakubecki) (1937)
• Portal Roth & Metzger, Vienna, Margarethenstrasse (before 1939)
• Italian Chamber of Commerce, Vienna 1, farmers market (1949)
• Espresso Stambul, Vienna 1, Fleischmarkt (with Hugo Potyka and Hans Mantel) (1950)
• Reconstruction of the living and common rooms of the Williams apartment, Vienna 19, Felix-Dahnstraße near Türkenschanzpark (Villa von Frass und Hide) (1951)
• Espresso in the Hotel Erzherzog Rainer , Vienna 4, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 27–29 (with Hugo Potyka and Hans Mantel) (1952)
• Reconstruction of the offices in Dorotheum, Vienna 1, Dorotheergasse 17 (with Hans Mantel) (1955)
• Redesign of Dorotheum Graz, Styria. (1955)
• Zentralsparkasse branch Schottenring, Vienna 1, Schottenring (late 1950s)
• Main building of the Central Savings Bank of the Municipality of Vienna (planning and management of room design and interior furnishings), Vienna 3, Vordere Zollamtsstraße 13 (1965)

Others

In 2014 and 2015, Café Potyka at Schmelzgasse 3, 1020 Vienna , Leopoldstadt tried to continue the tradition of the 20th century espresso architecture, which was influenced by Anton Potyka. However, the company was unsuccessful.

Literature (selection)

Articles by and about the work of Anton Potyka can mainly be found in the magazines of the Bau of the Central Association of Architects in Austria.

• H. Alt: Espresso culture . In: the construction . No. 5, 1964, p. 239.
• Anonymous: Palace of 10,000 guests. Vienna's largest entertainment establishment in the city park . In: Wiener Journal . May 3, 1935.
• Anonymous: Opening of a giant hotel on Kobenzl . In: Viennese latest news . March 17, 1937.
• Anonymous: The new building of the main institution of the Central Savings Bank of the Municipality of Vienna . In: Sparkasse newspaper . 1956, pp. 167-168.
• Anonymous: Tomorrow is the opening: It's a shame about the old Espresso Rainer . In: Courier - district special edition Wieden . March 22, 1982, pp. 167-168.

Web links

• Anton Potyka. In: arch INFORM .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Architekturzentrum Wien, Anton Potyka . Retrieved November 22, 2016.
2. ^ Anton Potyka grave site , Vienna, Döblinger Friedhof, Group 38, Row 7, No. 2.