Guest post from Bárbara Mendes-Jorge @flame_me_up
I had never heard of Friedensreich Hundertwasser until I visited Vienna for the first time and saw Hundertwasserhaus, a truly striking housing project in the city. In 1977, then-chancellor Bruno Kreisky wanted Vienna’s mayor to give Hundertwasser the opportunity to put his architectural ideas into practice.
Up until this project Hundertwasser had only ever made architectural models, having focused mostly on painting. However, from the 1950s onwards he became fascinated by architecture, writing essays, manifestos and giving lectures and continued to gain notoriety.
Hundertwasserhaus is still inhabited and so unfortunately is not open to visitors – although the “Kunst und Café” on the ground floor shows a free film which gives a guided tour of the inside of the house.
However, Hundertwasser junkies need not fret – round the corner is KunstHausWien, another equally-striking building and home to the Museum Hundertwasser.
Upon entering you are greeted by the Panta Rhei fountain, made with stones from five continents and with the water flowing uphill, “against the norm” and built in a spiral shape which is present in many of Hundertwasser’s works (“our whole life proceeds in spirals”).
Two floors are dedicated to Hundertwasser’s life and work, beginning with a wall biography charting in extensive detail his travels and influences. The museum showcases a range of paintings, architectural models and even flag and stamp designs that Hundertwasser created for a range of countries.
A fascinating character, Hundertwasser wanted to bring his environmental philosophy and rejection of sterile architecture together in his work. He advocated for natural features of the landscape to be incorporated into buildings, rejected the idea of straight lines (even the floors in his designs are uneven) and espoused a creative freedom in building – even for the tenants.
“A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm’s reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm’s reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardised man who lives next door.” - Hundertwasser’s Window Right
A visit to the Museum Hundertwasser is a dose of inspiring idealism in a colourful and unique setting.
Bárbara Mendes-Jorge is currently living in Brussels and tweets @flame_me_up.
————-
The Kunst Haus Wien website is also impressive. It’s easy to use and is bilingual – German and English.
Their Facebook page is very active and they have over 20,000 likes.
Does anyone know if they are on Twitter? I have a feeling they would do it well!
