Mad Mosaic

The Austrian artist-cum-architect Hundertwasser -born Friedrich Stowasser (1928-2000)- is mainly known for the colourful buildings he designed. He was an advocate of an environmental and human friendly way of building.  From his philosophy on architecture the house was the third skin (human skin being the first and clothing being the second). His most famous work is the Hundertwasserhaus (middle and right) in Vienna, a social housing project built in 1986. Another design, less visited by tourists, is the dazzling Müllverbrennungsanlage Spittelau (shown left) a waste incinerator that provides warm water for heating social housing.

Hundertwassers architecture is almost devoid of straight lines and includes many brightly coloured materials often ceramic. More often than not a tower like structure crowned by an onion shaped dome is part of his buildings. In his work the influences of Jugendstil and Gaudi are clearly visible. Plants are part of the structures he designed; they adorn the roof terraces and grow in planters integrated in the facade.

A single superblock: Alois Appel Hof

The Gartenhof-model was not only used for large scale housing developments, but also for single block developments. A good example of this is the Alois Appel Hof east of the Karl Seitz Hof. This Alois Appel Hof is a so-called superblock located between the Pragerstraße, Morsegasse and Voltagasse. The block opens to the Pragerstraße and the other facades have access to the inner courtyard garden through large gates.

The Alois Appel Hof was designed by Erich Franz Leischner (1887-1970), an architect employed by the city of Vienna who was responsible for several communal housing projects often with amenities such as playgrounds, shops, bathhouses and even parking garages. His work fits neatly into the interwar period known as Das Rote Wien (The Red Vienna -because of the predominantly socialist city counsel of the period). E. Leischner, together with V. Weixler, is also known for the book Wohnhausbauten der Gemeinde Wien, published in 1926.

The C-shaped superblock opens at the front on the Pragerstraße, giving a glimpse of the verdant oasis within. As is customary the name is presented in large letters on the outer facade. Inside the entrances and stair cases give a rhythm to the otherwise undecorated facades.

The Alois Appel Hof was named in honour of Alois Appel (1872-1946), a metalworker and unionleader who founded an aid foundation for needy children (Verein Kinderfreunde) in 1911. Many of the housing projects of this period were named after socialist heroes, both local and international. In Vienna we find the Karl Marx Hof, Friedrich Engels Hof, Reumann Hof and Karl Seitz Hof to name a few.

All housing projects built by order of the socialist city council of Vienna during the First Republic have this kind of commemorative text on one or more facades (mainly at the entrance or on a corner along a main thoroughfare).The Alois Appel Hof was built between 1931 and '32.

Carl Seitz Hof: socialist monumentalism

The rather grand and very formal entrance to the "garden city" is emphasized by the round facade on the Karl Seitz Platz. A crescent connects the two superblocks. Although that name suggests a paved square it is now a park with a bust of the name giver taking pride of place on the central axis.

A large clock tower graces the corners of the crescent. They are basically elongated staircases with reset balconies. The central gate leads on the public gardens that separate the superblocks, giving the whole housing estate a green feel.

 

A view along the facades on the central public gardens. The monumental scale of the buildings is married with the managed green setting. The long facades are broken up by elegant bays and the varying roofline makes for a less massive impression of the rendered superblocks.

Everywhere the rendered facades are adorned with ornaments in majolica like this coat of arm of the city of Vienna showing the heraldic device of the Austrian eagle baring the red crossed shield. On the right one of the ornamental gates leading to one of the inner court yard gardens.

The staircases are picked up in the architecture as ornaments with majolica detailing and vertical ribbon windows. Each one of these staircases (Stiege) is numbered to aid orientation.

Other architectural devices are also utilized in set the staircases apart in the long facades on the garden side of these superblocks (or Gartenhöfe).The staircase can take the shape of a tower-like protrusion (right), or as a balcony bay topped by a round arch (left).

 On the edge of the central public gardens a school was built. It is located to the side of the housing estate to also serve the preexisting housing on this side. It is executed in the same style with the same type of detailing. Also note the garden vases on the pillars. This low building emphasizes the large scale of the Karl Seitz Hof estate.

The roofline also plays its part in making the outer facades more interesting. On the left an example of a facade on the central public gardens. On the right a vista from one green courtyard into another through an ornamented archway.

 

 

On the outside the high and long facades are broken up by multilevel bays and tower-like corner extensions. No majolica ornaments on the outside facades though.

Inside the largest garden court (Gartenhof) the laundry (Waschsalon) is located next to the bathhouse (Badhalle). Both are designed in the same style with cubist treatment of the building shape with decorative elements signifying functional element like for instance the entrance (left). In a similar style three large round pergolas have been constructed at the southern end of the largest garden court. These elements fit in well with the surrounding architecture and add a horizontal element contrasting with the verticality of the entrances and staircases.

 

 

Another curved wall on the southernmost tip of the largest superblock is used to announce the large crescent of the main entrance on the Karl Seitz Platz. On this facade on the corner of the Jedleseer Straße and the Dunantgasse The name of the housing estate is displayed. In front of this curved facade the Grete und Otto Ascher Park is located (this is a small public garden). It was named in honour of the Jewish couple who fled Austria after the Anschluss but returned after WW2 had ended.

Gartenstadt Floridsdorf or Carl Seitz Hof, Vienna

The housing project now known as the Karl Seitz Hof was originally called Gartenstadt Floridsdorf. Floridsdorf is the 21st district of Vienna, Austria (21. Bezirk, Floridsdorf). Floridsdorf is located in the northern part of Vienna on the left bank of the Danube. The Gartenstadt Floridsdorf was built west of the Pragerstraße between Floridsdorf, Jedlesee and Neu-Jedlersdorf. The complex, built between 1926-31 after plans by Hubert Gessner, consists of several superblocks around communal gardens.

This so-called garden city comprises of 1173 dwellings (all in the form of apartments) with bathhouses, laundries, school, doctors surgery, commercial spaces and several community spaces. The apartment blocks are five floors high. The entrances are on the garden side. On the outside the long facades are broken up by large gates and hanging bays and balconies. In 1951 the complex was renamed in honour of Karl Seitz the first president of the second Austrian Republic.

The Gartenstadt Floridsdorf is a prime example -both in layout, architecture and range of amenities provided- of the socialist building program of the city of Vienna in the interbellum. This and many other garden cities  in Vienna were not constructed along the lines of the baugenossenschaft with family houses in the form of short terraces or semidetached houses, but along the lines of the Gartenhof, a model of high density housing pioneered in Germany. 

These garden courts (Gartenhöfe) tried to marry efficient land use and low building costs with a close knit social network in a green setting with plenty of outdoor space. Allotment gardens are always a part of these garden court developments. Not unlike the original aim of the garden city the garden courts try to define a living environment that was not urban and not rural at the same time, but communal and with access to green and the experience of nature.

The housing complex is formal in layout with four super blocks around a cross shaped public garden. At the front two such superblocks are connected by a crescent looking out over what was once a large square and now a park on top of a parking garage. The crescent shaped front with a 9 floors high clock towers on the corners and ornamental gates is reminiscent of a baroque cour d'honneur. Entrances, pillars and pilasters are enhanced with majolica ornaments. The architecture is sober apart from these ornaments and simple details that emphasize either the horizontal or vertical lines of the cubist architecture. 

With all the greenery inside and around the superblocks with apartments the Karl Setiz Hof can truly be seen as a garden city in the sense that it is a form of housing halfway between urban and rural. On the Pragerstraße a single Gartenhof was built: the Alois Appel Hof (1). This is not part of the original Gartenstadt Floridsdorf. The housing estate is focused on the Karl Seitz Platz (2) and has a large public garden (3) at its heart. The first superblock built has two courtyard gardens (4) in its midst. The laterer blocks all have a large garden court (5). These green spaces vary in size due to the skewed plot. In the largest one there is room for a swimming pool (6 - D. Hoffmannhalle) and bathhouse (7 - Waschsalon). A school (8) and a clubhouse (9) are located around the edges to also serve adjoining housing.