In Europe, there are many interesting places that attract tourists, like a magnet. One of them is the Hundertwasser House (Vienna, Austria). Located on a cozy street in the very center of the city, it attracts passers-by with its original architecture, bright colors and a riot of greenery. The building is so distinguished from the rest of the houses of the Austrian capital that it is simply impossible not to notice it and pass by.
Short description
The Hundertwasser House in Vienna was built during 1983-1986. It is a multi-storey residential building consisting of 52 apartments, 4 office rooms, 16 private and 3 common terraces. The building is surrounded by greenery: in its niches located at different levels and on the roof, more than 250 shrubs and trees are planted. It was designed by Austrian architect and artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser in collaboration with architect Josef Kravina. The creators tried to build an ideal house of the future, in which a person can live among natural forms and in perfect harmony with nature.
The shocking building caused an unprecedented stir among the local population, and there was no end to the desire to acquire real estate in it. But not everyone is able to stand for long in a house near which hundreds of tourists flock daily (they are not allowed to enter the building itself), therefore, having lived in it for a couple of years, people sell their apartments and move to other, more peaceful areas. Despite the large turnover, real estate prices in the Hundertwasser house are consistently high, because all early there are many who want to live in it.
Childhood and youth of a genius
Before you begin to examine the Hundertwasser house, you need to get acquainted with a brief biography of its creator, because the life of this man deserves no less attention than the building he built. Friedrich Stovasser (as the real name of the architect sounds) was born in Vienna back in 1928. His father was Austrian and his mother was Jewish. The father of the future genius died immediately after the birth of his son, so the mother raised the boy. In the 30s, the Nazis came to power in Germany, and the persecution of Jews began in Europe. To avoid this, in 1937, mother decided to baptize little Friedrich according to the Catholic rite.
The Second World War destroyed all the relatives of the future architect, including his mother, in concentration camps. He himself managed to escape. Hiding his Jewish origin, he even served in the Nazi youth organization Hitler Youth. The terrible years of the war formed in the young man a love of peace and a desire to live in unity with nature.
In 1948, the young man began to attend the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. From this moment, his life becomes inextricably linked with creativity. Stovasser takes the pseudonym Friedensreich Hundertwasser, consisting of several words and literally translated as "a peaceful country of hundreds of waters." Under this name, he became known throughout the world.
Hundertwasser Views in Architecture
The architect was sure that living in gray and desolate houses resembling boxes was very harmful for both physical and mental health. He considered a comfortable burrow covered with greenery to be ideal human housing, in which many windows were made for light. It was such a dream house that he built for himself when he lived in New Zealand. In it, the walls and the roof formed a hill, on which rams often climbed in order to pluck fresh grass. Hundertwasser hated regular geometric shapes and straight lines. He believed that in nature there is no symmetry, therefore, it should not be in architecture. He created his buildings, whether it was a multi-story residential building or an office center, without a single right angle. All his projects were distinguished by curved lines and a variety of colors, which he achieved by decorating the walls with mosaic from broken ceramics. This approach made it possible to create bright and unusual houses, capable of raising one’s mood by a person alone.
The architect traveled a lot, and at the end of his life he settled in New Zealand, where he died in 2000. He left to mankind many designed buildings, but the peak of his work is the Hundertwasser House in Vienna.
Construction
The idea of building an unusual building came up with the architect back in the late 70s of the last century. For a long time he was developing a project for an ideal city house. The Hundvertwasser wanted housing not only comfortable for a person, but also allowed him to get closer to nature, which is sorely lacking in living conditions in the capital. In 1979, the master built a model of such a house from matchboxes, and a year later the idea of the building was already finally formed for him. Construction began on July 16, 1983 and lasted almost 3 years. Throughout all time, Hundertwasser was personally present at the construction of the house, picked up building materials for him, decorated masonry from mosaics, bricks and stones.
Exterior Description
The facade of the building was incredibly colorful. Each apartment on it is separated from the neighboring ones using different colors and curved lines. The architect was convinced that the main openings in the buildings were window openings through which sunlight penetrated into the premises. For their design, the master has developed 13 different types of windows, differing in size, shape and color. To add extravagance, all the frames were additionally decorated with mosaic from broken ceramic tiles. The multi-storey residential building turned out to be like a colored patchwork quilt, but Hundertwasser did not stop there either. He ensured that all residents of the apartments of this unusual building received the right to decorate the facades around their windows at their own discretion.
Trees and bushes
The architect paid much attention to landscaping the house. He adhered to the theory that a person building a building steals part of its land from nature. In order to restore the disturbed balance, it is necessary for it to green the housing itself. For this reason, trees, bushes, flowers and grass grow everywhere on the house: on the roof, terraces, niches, balconies and walls. Some of the representatives of the kingdom of flora manage to grow even from the windows. With such an original approach, Hundertwasser brought to life his pioneering idea of tenant trees. In accordance with it, green spaces pay rent to apartment residents by giving them coolness, purifying the air from exhaust gases and simply pleasing to the eye.
Columns, statues and mosaics
Tourists, accustomed to the fact that the architecture of Austria is distinguished by restraint and laconic forms, are surprised to see such a bright building on Vienna's crowded street. The additional finish gives it extra shocking: the facade of the house is decorated with numerous columns of various sizes and shades. They not only create support for a multi-storey building, but also make its appearance more comfortable and romantic. The same goal is pursued by numerous stone sculptures located in the niches of the walls.
The mosaic, which adorns both its facade and the premises of the apartments, gives the building a special flavor. Multi-colored patterns are laid out not according to preliminary sketches, but in random order, due to which the effect of ease and naturalness is achieved, and people get the impression that there are no right angles in the rooms.
Features of floors and walls
Hundertwasser tried to maintain the natural asymmetry of nature, not only in the exterior of the building, but also in its interior. The master was sure: problems with the feet of people arise due to the fact that they walk on flat ground. So that the residents of the house had fewer complaints about health, the genius created uneven floors in the house, the surface of which spreads out in different directions by random waves. Hundertwasser also created uneven walls on the stairwells and equipped them with plaster, allowing the children to paint on them.
