Europe

[Visited: August 2005]

Walking in the streets of Vienna, where classical architecture gives the city a stately and formal face, you can still come across a building that is colourful, inspirational and unique. The Hundertwasserhaus, named after its painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who lived from 1928 to 2001, sites outside the city centre, but is in easy walking distance from the major sights of Vienna. It has become a sight in itself, though, an wayward building in the middle of a mostly conservative city.
The building was finished in the mid-1980s. Unfortunately, when you approach the building it is not possible to get a good view of it because it is standing shoulder to shoulders to other houses, and therefore part of the street scene. You have to get close to get a feel of the Hundertwasserhaus. Crooked walls, bright blue, red, and green surfaces, seemingly haphazard lines painted on the walls, columns all in their own colours and shapes, and a lot of plants and even trees on the roof of the building. The Hundertwasserhaus is not only a pleasant surprise for the eye, or a whim of the artist. There is a whole philosophy behind it.
While the building is named after the painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser who gave it its unique looks, the architect of the building is Joseph Krawina. As a reaction to urbanisation, and city people living separated from nature and in monotonous housing, they both wanted to build something different. All apartments are unique in themselves, also from the outside, to give each inhabitant his very own living space. Nature is integrated into the building, with not only a garden in the backyard of the Hundertwasserhaus, but also shrubberies and trees on the roofs of the building. This allows inhabitants to follow the seasons of the year by the nature surrounding them. City dwellers living in individual and unique apartments surrounded by nature. It is a true pity visitors are not allowed inside.

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Personal travel impressions both in words and images from Hundertwasser Haus (Austria). Clicking on the pictures enlarges them and enables you to send the picture as a free e-card or download it for personal use, for instance, on your weblog. Or click on the map above to visit more places close to Hundertwasser Haus.
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[Visited: August 2005]

Around the World in 80 Clicks

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