Raimund Abraham

Raimund Johann Abraham (born July 23, 1933 in Lienz , East Tyrol , † March 4, 2010 in Los Angeles ) was an Austrian - American architect and professor of architecture .

Life

From 1952 to 1958 Raimund Abraham studied at the Technical University in Graz . After graduating, he completed further studies in Germany , Belgium and Switzerland until 1960 .

1960 to 1964 he worked as a freelance architect in Vienna ; During this time he stayed briefly in Africa , Mexico and the USA . From 1964 he was a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence , USA. Four years later he worked as the director of the Studio of Environmental Technology Institute in the same city until 1970.

In 1971 he moved to New York , where he was Professor of Architecture at the Pratt Institute . He then went on to be a visiting lecturer in architecture at the Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and Art . At the same time, he started his own business in 1971 and opened his own studio for architecture and design in New York.

Since 1958 he has received numerous prizes in international competitions. Abraham's daughter Una Katrina lives in Vienna and runs a restaurant there. He himself lived in New York, Los Angeles and Mazunte in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico .

After a teaching lecture at the Southern California Institute for Architecture (SCI-Arc), the car driven by Abraham collided with a bus on the way home in Los Angeles in 2010 . Abraham died at the scene of the accident.

Raimund Abraham was not only known for its spectacular architecture. He was also one of those architects who helped modern architectural drawing to its current status.

Austrian Cultural Forum New York

Austrian Cultural Forum in Manhattan , New York

His most spectacular building is the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, which was completed in 2002 and attracted international attention. In a symbolic act shortly before the opening of this cultural forum, he resigned his Austrian citizenship in protest against the participation of the FPÖ in the government, but then applied for naturalization again.

Appreciation

From July 16 to October 26, 2016, the exhibition Architect Raimund Abraham. Back Home shown. In this context, the six-hour film Scenes from the Life of Raimund Abraham by the New York avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas , made in 2013, was shown for the first time in Austria.

In 2020 the Museum of Applied Arts Vienna (MAK) is showing the exhibition Raimund Abraham from June 16 to October 18 . Angles and Angels and this movie.

Works (selection)

• 1960s: Pless House in Vienna
• 1960s: House for the Salzburg photographer Josef Dapra
• 1967–1969: Dellacher House in Oberwart in Burgenland
• 1968–1969: Standardized simple houses and a day care center in Providence , Rhode Island, USA
• 1973–1977: Rainbow Plaza in Niagara Falls
• 1980–1987: residential and commercial building at Friedrichstrasse 32–33 for the IBA Berlin
• 1980–1989: Anthology Film Archives in New York
• 1985: Extension of Haus Bernard in Lans , Tyrol
• 1987–1991: Traviatagasse 21–29 settlement (master plan and building segment C) in Vienna 23rd, Inzersdorf
• 1990–1993: Residential and commercial building in Graz
• 1993–1996: Tiroler Landeshypothekenbank in Lienz , East Tyrol
• 1998: Library of the Anthology Film Archives in New York
• 1998–2001: Austrian Cultural Forum in New York

Awards

• 2005: Gold Medal for Services to the State of Vienna

literature

• Silvia Ebner, Christoph Freyer, Anna Stuhlpfarrer (Eds.): "Architect Raimund Abraham. Back Home" Catalog for the exhibition of the same name 16.7. - 26.10.2016, Schloss Bruck - Museum of the City of Lienz, Lienz 2016
• Brigitte Groihofer (Ed.): Raimund Abraham. (Un) built. 2nd, revised and enlarged edition. Springer, Vienna et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-7091-0468-2 .
• Helmut Weihsmann: Raimund J. Abraham . In: ders .: Built in Vienna. Lexicon of 20th Century Viennese Architects. Promedia, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85371-234-7 . P. 13f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Another date of birth according to Helmut Weihsmann: Raimund J. Abraham. 2005, p. 13: July 13, 1933
2. ↑ Raimund Abraham died at the age of 76 at derstandard.at on March 5, 2010
3. ↑ blogdowntown LA (English) ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2010 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. ↑ Press release from the Southern California Institute of Architecture ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Die Presse : 38 neo-Austrians in one fell swoop
6. ^ The exhibition on the website of Schloss Bruck
7. ↑ Wojciech Czaja: At home behind the curtain , in: Der Standard newspaper , Vienna, July 23, 2016, Supplement Album , p. A 8
8. ↑ see note on Pless House
9. ↑ Raimund Abraham von Wien honored City Hall correspondence of March 9, 2005 (accessed on March 5, 2010)

Web links

Commons : Raimund Abraham  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Raimund Abraham in the catalog of the German National Library
• Christoph Freyer, notes on Raimund Abraham
• Entry on Raimund Abraham in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Raimund Abraham: Around the Zero Point - Falter, edition 13/1986 (PDF file; 23 kB)
• Homepage of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York
• ARCHITECT RAIMUND ABRAHAM (1933-2010) Dies in Car Accident in Los Angeles Southern California Institute of Architecture (accessed March 5, 2010)
• Raimund Abraham in the Archive of Architecture at the University of Innsbruck
• Raimund Abraham , Architects Lexicon Vienna online
• Raimund Abraham , Austria Forum