Transcript Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Otto Wagner
1841-1918
“…in his theory and in his building [Wagner] remains the
most innovative and influential architect in central Europe.”
Expressionist painter Egon Schiele, 1912
The chronological context
of Wagner’s architecture
Chronological context in Architecture
- Modernism to Postmodernism 1890s
1900s
1910s
First generation
modernists
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
Second generation
modernists
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
Third generation
modernists
The pioneers of modernism.
They each treated form, space,
structure, materials and ornament in
novel ways.
These were the architects of ‘high
modernism’- the universal
International Style- as well as the
fashionable Art Deco period.
These were the architects of
Postmodernism.
They reacted against the orthodoxy of
high modernism.
Peter Behrens -
Berlin
Walter Gropius
Frank Gehry
Auguste Perret -
Paris
Le Corbusier
Philip Johnson
C. R. Mackintosh -
Glasgow
Mies van der Rohe
Charles Moore
Otto Wagner -
Vienna
Gerrit Reitveld
I. M. Pei
Adolf Loos -
Vienna
William Van Allen
Michael Greaves
Louis Sullivan -
Chicago
Napier Art Deco architects
Louis Kahn
Frank Lloyd Wright - Chicago and mid-western states of USA
Robert Venturi
The context of his architecture
Geographical context:

Otto Wagner was an Austrian designer and architect based in Vienna, Austria.
Vienna
Context
continued…
Historical and Social contexts:



Otto Wagner was an important pioneer of the modern
movement. His most significant buildings were
constructed in the years between 1883 to 1912.
He was the oldest (in 1900 he was nearly 60 years
old), but one of the most influential pioneers of
modern architecture.
Wagner’s early buildings were designed in Classical
Revival styles consistent with the Beaux Arts
Classicism fashionable throughout Europe during the
late 19th Century. Wagner’s Landerbank Building of
1883-4 (right) exemplifies this period of his career.

In 1894 as a respected, successful and conservative
architect he was appointed professor of the
architecture school at the Viennese Academy of Fine
Arts, but in 1899 he scandalised the architectural
establishment when he helped form the Secessionists
(the Art Nouveau movement in Vienna) with some of
his most talented and radical students. Majolica
House, 1899, (left) exemplifies the character of his
work at this time of his career. The architecture school
became popularly known as the Wagnerschule
(Wagner School) and his teaching was profoundly
influential on the development of the modern
movement.
Context continued…
Historical and Social contexts:

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In 1896 he published Moderne Architektur in
which he spoke of the need for architecture to
orientate itself to modern life and to satisfy
practical concerns ahead of aesthetic ones.
Wagner taught that the creation of a ‘realistic’
building (i.e. a modern building) was not a
matter of style (i.e. aesthetics), but rather of
solving its design problems so as to meet the
practical needs of its modern inhabitants. This
primary concern for functionalism in architecture
made the Wagnerschule unique throughout
Europe at this time.
A friend and supporter of the radical, fellow
Viennese architect Adolf Loos, by 1903 Wagner
had moved on from the Secessionist concern
with Art Nouveau to a much more rational and
industrial approach to design and construction.
Wagner’s most significant building is the Royal
and Imperial Post Office Savings Bank of 1906,
(right) located just off the Ringstrasse, Vienna’s
grand boulevard that showcases the splendour
of Austria’s 19th century revivalist architecture.
Wagner’s most significant building.
The Royal and Imperial Post Office Savings Bank, Vienna, 1906
Context and innovation in Wagner’s Imperial Post Office
Savings Bank, Vienna, 1903-06
Click here to view a 3-part documentary on this famous early modern building.
Use this resource to research answers to the following questions:
Context:
1.
How was Wagner’s architecture, before his ‘conversion’, typical of mainstream 19th
Century academic design. Who were his patrons at this time?
2.
What is the Ringstrasse in Vienna? Why is it significant architecturally?
3.
Suggest TWO reasons why Wagner won the competition to build this building even
though he had shocked the establishment with his conversion, late in his career,
from a traditional, imperialist aesthetic to a much more rational, machine aesthetic.
Innovation:
1.
How did Wagner manage to construct this prestigious monumental building so
quickly and cheaply?
2.
What innovative design features of the eight-storey office areas enable these
spaces to function well even today?
3.
What features of this building make it ‘hospital-like’?
4.
What material are the walls of the main courtyard of the Bank covered in, and why?
5.
Identify FOUR features of this building that are dressed in aluminum. Identify ONE
advantage Wagner saw in using this material.
.
Stylistic features of Wagner’s Imperial Post Office Savings
Bank, Vienna, 1903-06
Click here to view a 3-part documentary on this famous early modern building.
Use this resource to research answers to the following questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
List THREE materials that dress the underlying structure of the main façade.
How is the smooth surface of the main façade decorated?
What traditional decorative features are located on the main façade? Why do
you think these were necessary?
Of what materials are the stairwells of this building made? How are they
functional?
What architecturally significant structure occupies the main courtyard?
List FIVE adjectives used to describe the style of the main banking hall.
State one CONTEMPORARY and one HISTORICAL influence in Wagner’s design
of the main banking hall.
List FOUR industrial materials used to construct the main banking hall.
What do the geometric motifs on the floors of the building indicate?
How does Wagner’s Post Office achieve its elegance and formality?
How does the German concept of ‘gesamtkunstwerk’ apply to this building?
Write TWO comments about the furniture Wagner designed for this building.
Write TWO comments about the colour schemes used in this building.
Stylistic features of the POSB Building
Wagner believed…
“Works of art must always be …”
“Nothing can be beautiful if it is not functional.”
“Architecture must stop imitating the styles of the past.
It must become a true reflection of our time, expressing
simplicity, a functional nature and… the military
precision of modern life.”
How does Wagner’s Royal and Imperial Post Office
Savings Bank …
…
…
…
…
…
differ form the styles of the past?
reflect the age in which it was built?
express simplicity?
express its functional nature?
express the military precision of modern life?
Click here to link to the
Wagner Museum website
in the Royal and Imperial
Post Office Savings Bank.
It has information about
Wagner’s life; about the
competition to design this
Building; about Wagner’s
furniture; about the new
materials he used; and
about the influential the
Wagnerschule.
Winged female figure with laurel wreath.
Akroteria in aluminum, 4.5m high, above
main entrance façade of the Post Office.