project consists of a semi-detached " residency program " situated next to a concrete structure that was part of the anti-aircraft towers built in Vienna during World War II. Blanca Pérez Alonso, a student in the course, recounts her experience in this blog:
“Billy Joel was right when he said,‘Vienna waits for you,’because at every corner of the city you can see how art and people coexist. Alongside centuries of history, we can witness the birth of a new architecture and feel how the city invites you to experience it firsthand.”
Innovation and Identity
The students and professors walked through the streets of this city to kick off the semester, visiting the Vienna State Opera and the Hofburg Imperial Palace. In the city center, we also took the opportunity to explore the collection of commercial buildings designed by architects such as Adolf Loos and Hollein, thereby gaining insight into an architectural tradition that is part of Vienna’s identity. To understand the causes and effects of the Vienna Secession, the trip’s itinerary placed special emphasis on exploring the architecture of Otto Wagner and other great architects who transformed the city. We visited Otto Wagner’s Schönbrunn Station and Schönbrunn Palace and its gardens, as well as Josef Frank’s Villa Beer, whose interior particularly impressed many of the students—its spaces, thought out down to the smallest detail, are a hallmark of his architecture.
Afterward, we took a tour of the Schönbrunn neighborhood, home to some of the most interesting works from this period, such as the Rufer House by Adolf Loos, the Scheu House by Adolf Loos, the Primavesi Villa by Josef Hoffmann, and the Steiner House by Adolf Loos. Thanks to a very kind owner who was very understanding of architecture students, we were able to enter the inner garden of the latter and admire it from a different perspective. We also spent part of the day exploring three magnificent works by Otto Wagner: St. Leopold Am Steinhof, which left many of our classmates in awe, and Villa Wagner I and Villa Wagner II. This entire tour helped us understand how the various architectural approaches of the era contributed to forging a new identity for the city.
Learning to Look at a City
The tour continued with an in- workshop y session focused on Vienna’s museums and architecture. We visited the Wien Museum and the Belvedere Museum / Upper Belvedere, whose spaces and collections helped us understand the close and significant relationship between art and architecture—a relationship that is ultimately embodied particularly clearly in Joseph Maria Olbrich’s Secession Pavilion, which can almost be understood as a work of art in its own right. We also had the opportunity to explore the gardens and the Lower Belvedere and visit the Wittgenstein House designed by Paul Engelmann and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Over the next few days, we visited the Leopold Museum and returned to the Secession Building, as well as some of Otto Wagner’s most iconic works, such as the Majolikahaus, the Medallion House, and the Postsparkasse. The trip also took us to Karl Ehn’s Karl-Marx-Hof and the Vienna University of Economics and Business, where we paid special attention to Zaha Hadid’s “ project .”
The experience not only allowed us to get to know Vienna, but also to understand how different eras, movements, and architects coexist within the same city, making it a true learning environment for any architecture student.
