Schindler's Viennese background allowed him to study among
great Austrian architects. He was fascinated by his instructors: Otto Wagner
and Adolf Loos.
Adolf Loos (1870
- 1933)
Birthplace: Brno, Moravia
 |
| Adolf Loos |
 |
| Villa Muller interior Spacial planning (Raumplan) |
Fellow Viennese architect Adolf Loos believed that ornament
was a crime. He even went as far as stating, "It would be greatly for own
aesthetic good if we would refrain entirely from the use of ornament for a
period of years in order that our thought might concentrate acutely upon the
production of buildings well formed and comely in the nude." Loos had a very radical approach to architecture and
was highly opinionated. His personal charisma drew students to his lectures.
During these lectures, Schindler took away an appreciation for Loos's Raumplan
complexity of interior spaces. Loos had an overwhelming passion for the people,
culture and architecture of the USA. Loos's faith in the promise of US life
propelled Schindler to practice in the USA, especially after the mutual discovery
of Frank Lloyd Wright after seeing the
1910 publication of the Wasmuth Portfolio.
Source: Architecture of the Sun By: Thomas S Hines
Photographic sources noted in bibliography.
 |
| Postal Savings Bank interior |
Birthplace: Penzing, Austria
Wagner studied at the Imperial School of Technology and the
Academy of Fine Arts between 1857 and 1863. He was later appointed professor of
the Academy of Art in 1894. Eventually he established the Wagnerschule, a
studio based education system that only accepted 12 incoming students a year.
The schools ideas managed to reach far beyond its' participants, though the
actual alumni were some of the most influential architects of the first half of
the twentieth century.
Wagner believed that other architecture of his time considered form, style and beauty as mere by products of the building program when they should be the primary concern in developing a design for modern life. With that in mind, Schindler marveled at Wagner's Postal Savings Bank (1905). It was the first modern building placed in the historicist Ringstrasse. The structure was remarkably different in not only in style, but in its use of materials: concrete, steel, aluminum and glass. Wagner even designed the furniture and fixtures because he believed in the Germanic concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (all embracing art). The model inspired Schindler's future mentor Frank Lloyd Wright.
Source: Architecture of the Sun By: Thomas S Hines
Photographic sources noted in bibliography.
No comments:
Post a Comment