Hundertwasser & Modern Architecture
Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928–2000, born Friedrich Stowasser) was Austria's most idiosyncratic artist — painter, architect, eco-visionary, and enemy of the straight line. His credo: "The straight line is godless." He never wore matching socks, lived on a sailboat at times, and designed houses that look as if a child had drawn them — with colorful facades, green roofs, uneven floors, and trees growing out of windows.
His most important works in Vienna:
- Hundertwasserhaus (Kegelgasse/Löwengasse, 3rd district) — a public housing project (!), colorful, crooked, green. Freely viewable from the outside, inhabited inside. Opposite is the Hundertwasser Village with shops
- KunstHausWien (Untere Weißgerberstraße 13) — the museum for Hundertwasser's work: uneven floors, no straight walls, trees inside the building. Permanent collection plus photography exhibitions
- Spittelau Waste Incineration Plant — yes, a waste incineration plant as a work of art. Golden sphere, colorful ceramics, green terraces. Hundertwasser redesigned the facade in 1992 — it is one of the most photographed buildings in Vienna
Beyond Hundertwasser, Vienna also has modern architectural highlights: the MuseumsQuartier (one of the largest cultural areas in the world, baroque facade meets contemporary architecture), the DC Tower by Dominique Perrault (250 m, Vienna's tallest building), the WU Vienna campus with buildings by Zaha Hadid, the House of Music (interactive sound museum), and the Graz Kunsthaus (the "Friendly Alien" — a blue blob building that seems to have landed like a spaceship in the old town).
