Early 20th Century Pioneers : The Austrian Postal Savings Bank by Otto Wagner

Austrian Postal Savings Bank, Otto Wagner, (Vienna, Austria); 1903 - 1912; Early 20th Century Pioneers

Also known as K.K. Postsparkassenamt and Die Österreichische Postsparkasse, the Postal Savings Bank is often cited as architect Otto Wagner's most important work. In its design, Wagner accomplishes beauty with functional simplicity, setting the tone for modernism. British architect and historian Kenneth Frampton has described the exterior this way:

"... the Post Office Savings Bank resembles a gargantuan metal box, an effect due in no small measure to the thin polished sheets of white Sterzing marble that are anchored to its façade with aluminum rivets. Its glazed canopy frame, entrance doors, balustrade and parapet rail are also of aluminum, as are the metal furnishings of the banking hall itself." — Kenneth Frampton

The "modernism" of the architecture is Wagner's use of traditional stone materials (marble) held in place by new building materials — aluminum covered iron bolts, which become the façade's industrial ornamentation. Cast-iron architecture of the mid-19th century was a "skin" molded to imitate historic designs; Wagner covered his brick, concrete, and steel building with a new “face” for the modern age.

The Banking Hall

Otto Wagner was one of 37 participants in the competition to build an Imperial and Royal Postal Savings Bank. According to the Museum Postsparkasse, Wagner's design submission, contrary to the specifications, combined the interior spaces that had similar functions, which sounds remarkably like what Louis Sullivan was advocating for skyscraper design — form follows function.

The hall is designed like an atrium, with a large glass skylight allowing natural light to enter the heart of the building at all times. Natural light is not used only for stylistic reasons, but also to reduce the cost of electric lighting. Even the floor of the main hall is constructed of glass tiles, allowing natural light to reach further down to the floor below, where the Post Office boxes and mail sorting rooms are located.

Wagner kept decoration in the main hall to a minimum, using only glass and polished steel as materials. The decorative effect is created by the simple but elegant use of the material itself.

Only at the upper part of the exterior, near the roof, did Wagner add more elaborate decorations, such as statues of angels. These were sculpted by Wagner collaborator and fellow Secessionist Othmar Schimkowitz.

The Architect

Viennese architect Otto Wagner (1841-1918) was part of the "Viennese Secession" movement at the end of the 19th century, which was marked by a revolutionary spirit of enlightenment.

The Secessionists revolted against the Neoclassical styles of the day, and, instead, adopted the anti-machine philosophies the Arts and Crafts movement. 

Wagner's architecture was a cross between traditional styles and Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil, as it was called in Austria. 

He is one of the architects credited with bringing modernity to Vienna, and his architecture remains iconic in Vienna, Austria.

Sources

"An Architect of Modernism [Otto Wagner]." Bulletin / the J. Paul Getty Trust, vol. 4, no. 1, Winter, pp. 11-13.

Czech, Hermann. "Preserving Modern Architecture - Otto Wagner's Vienna Postal Savings Bank." A & U: Architecture & Urbanism, no. 72, Dec. 1976, pp. 13-16.