The Berlage Sessions: Wagner's Vienna
On-line lecture by Werner Michael Schwarz
Pořadatel
Místo konání
The story of
Otto Wagner (1841–1918) is one of the many “heroic” narratives of fin-de-siècle Vienna. His architectural works live on as part of the everyday life of many Viennese, especially when making use of the stations of the Stadtbahn, part of today’s subway and S-Bahn network. Several of Wagner’s works, such as the Steinhof Church and the Postsparkasse, are important components of both the city’s cultural identity and its tourist marketing. Wagner’s works spanned several phases of design history, including Historicism, Art Nouveau, and Functionalism. In addition, he made important contributions to Viennese urban planning and to the theory of modern urban design. One such contribution was his 1911 fantasy of a large city spreading out indefinitely in concentric circles, an idea inspired by Vienna’s existing urban form. For the metropolis and its economy, he envisioned an architecture derived from the principle of movement as dictate of “time and money.” The modern city dweller, always in a hurry, was the intended recipient of Wagner’s aesthetics.