This course will explore the relationship between design and society in Vienna 1900. Our discussions will consider how the design of both the exterior and interior of Vienna’s major buildings relate to the evolution of different styles such as Historicism, Jugendstil, and modernism. It will explore how key protagonists including architects Otto Wagner, Carl König, Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos, and their students developed and fashioned the urban landscape. The course will examine how conservative and progressive trends in society such as the rise of liberal bourgeoisie, German nationalism, socialist political awareness, influential mass media, the positioning of women in the public discourse, and reform education influenced the development modern design.
The following questions will be discussed:
- What was considered as modern or socially correct or individual?
- Where did the architects and their clients belong to: Austro-Hungary? Austria? or Western Europe?
- How was the gender issue addressed in design and did women need differently designed spaces in their clubs and homes?
The study of the cooperation of architects with artists, and the fruitful, reciprocal exchange between fashion and design will help illuminate the critical relationship between modern design and the transformation of social and cultural patterns in Viennese society.
The course will include the following topics:
- The Ringstrasse and the Heritage of Historicism: the construction of the Ringstrasse as a European cultural project;Historicism as representation of liberal politics and positivist philosophy; the political and cultural institutions on the Ringstrasse; and the high bourgeois and aristocratic patrons of the Ringstrasse;
- Urban Planning and City Landscape: the organization of the city as a modern capital of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy; the role of public sculptures and gardens in fashioning the city landscape; development of industrial areas, shopping centers, and the entertainment park Prater.
- The Wiener Secession and the “Sacred Spring”: Otto Wagner’s railway stations and modernist buildings; the salon of Berta Zuckerkandl and the patrons of the Vienna Secession movement; architect Joseph Maria Olbrich and the Secession building; the “artist-designer” and the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk (Total-Art-Work).
- Josef Hoffmann and the Wiener Werkstätte(Viennese Workshops): the founders of the Wiener Werkstätte architect Hoffmann, designer Kolo Moser and the textile industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer; British and French forerunners of design workshops; Hoffmann’s Hohe Warte - villas colony; Hoffmann cooperation with artist Gustav Klimt; Design and modern medicine - Purkersdorf Sanatorium, design and women’s fashion - the “Schwestern Flöge” fashion salon, and design and entertainment - Cabaret Fledermaus.
- Excursion Rebellion in the Coffee House: the role of the coffee houses in shaping the modern city; mass media and architecture - public debates about design and identity in newspapers: What design is suitable for the middle class? What is modern?
- Adolf Loos and the English Gentleman: the coffee house circle of poet Peter Altenberg, critic Karl Kraus and architect Adolf Loos; Loos’s writings and works; criticism of the Secession Movement and the relationship between design and men’s fashion; Loos’s Café Museum, Goldman & Salatsch Building, Steiner House, Scheu House, and the American Bar; Loos and his protégée, the Expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka.
- Women in the City:: Feminists and their architects – political activist Rosa Mayreder and reform educator Eugenie Schwarzwald and Adolf Loos, artist and salon woman Broncia Koller-Pinell and art collector and patron Sonja Knips and Josef Hoffmann; Women clients and designers of the Wiener Werkstätte. Women architects after WWI
- Excursion Building for a Capitalist Society - the Schools of Otto Wagner and Carl König: Wagner’s students Max Fabiani and Jože Plečnik and their buildings, and König’s students Ernst Gotthilf, Oskar Marmorek and Arthur Baron and their buildings.
- Social in Design pre- and post WWI: Josef Frank and Wiener Wohnkultur (Viennese culture of living); Oskar Strnad and the ideology of empowerment through design; Design in service of Socialist politics - Hubert Gessner’s House for the Workers in Favoriten and Vorwärts House for the socialist party; Social Housing and designing affordable furniture.
Requirements: Attendance and participation in class discussion constitute 30%, small group discussion of reading-assignments and the presentations 30%, and a written final paper 40% of the grade.