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Vienna Secession Building       The Secession building was constructed by Joseph Maria Olbrich and Josef Hoffman under the direction Gustav Klimt, 1898. At the time, Austria was resistant to the new waves of art spreading through Europe, and their repressive sentiments led to the outbreak of artists taking a stand for artistic freedom. The artists banded together to form the Vienna Secession. This building was their new exhibition center, and it was intended to be an architectural manifesto of their revolt against the art institutions of Vienna, in the name of artistic freedom. Although the building came under great scrutiny, many saw it as a temple-like structure and a sacred space where art can be free. Front Entrance Left side view       Olbrich was a student of Otto Wagner, a well known professor at the school of architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He was a well versed in the design of Art-Nuevo, and com...

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 buildin...

Villa Wagner I, Vienna, Austria.1886-1 888; Early 20th Century Pioneers The Villas were designed and constructed by modernist architect, Otto Wagner in Hüttelbergstraße 26, district fourteen of Vienna, lower eastern Austria. This heavily wooded part of the Alps, also known as Penzing, is the home of both Villas, which happen to occupy adjacent lots. The first Villa, larger than the second, was constructed between 1886 and 1888, founding of the Secession the year after. The Villas were constructed by Otto to be residences, but now the original Villa is owned by the heirs of painter Ernst Fuchs. Villa Wagner I is known today as the Ernst Fuchs Private Museum (Unknown, "Wagner Villa I and II").   When Wagner began construction of the first Villa, he intended to make this place a center of relaxation and somewhere where his family could rest. It has some relationship to the nearby Hütteldorf forest, with the first villa at the end of it (Unknown, "Wagner V...