OTTO WAGNER

~AustriaN Architect
 Otto Wagner (1841-1918)

“A new era arrived, the MODERN. Architecture

became ‘Baukunst.’ Otto Wagner had ushered in this new
era. His word caught fire, it became fact and went into the
world…. He created an atmosphere in which the seeds of
future greatness could live and grow.”
-Lux

“We must become fully aware that the sole

departure point for our artistic work can only be
MODERN LIFE.”
-Wagner
 OTTTO WAGNER ‘S EARLY WORK
• Otto Koloman Wagner was born in
Vienna, Austria, on July 13, 1841
• Wagner was born in Perzing, a district
in Vienna.
• He was the son of Suzanne
• He studied architecture at the Viennese
Polytechnic Institute and the Royal
School of Architecture in Berlin.
• In 1864, he started designing his first
buildings in the historicist style
• He became Professor of Architecture at
the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna,in
1984
Moderne Architektur
•Otto Wagner wrote Modern Architecture to create a new STYLE
•Three principle themes of Modernism:
•A plea for simplicity in the accommodation of modern needs
•The artistic and ethical ruin of eclecticism
•The demand for a new style based on present technologies and
methods of construction
 Style

“The artist has been content to dissect the dead with a magnifying glass and lancet, instead of
listening to the pulse of those who are alive and relieving their pains.”
-Wagner

• The modern style is a response to the needs of modern man

•He argues that the logical consequence of catering to these needs is that art, and
artist, are then forced to represent their epoch and to conform to modern
appearances and ideas, even to the point of staying in step with fashion.
•Architecture’s basis was no longer to be symbolic form, but construction and
technology.
•Not only a building style; modernism affected all aspects of the aesthetics.
 Composition

“The ‘modern eye’ has lost it’s sense for a small and intimate scale and become accustomed to
less varied images, to longer straight lines, to more expansive surfaces, and to plainer
silhouetting.”
-Mallgrave

•Emphasizes the human need for a visual resting point; otherwise a painful
uncertainty or aesthetic uneasiness occurs.

•The image to be perceived, whether from single or multiple viewing points, was very
important to Wagner.
•Viewing points: locations where the building can be seen most frequently, most
easily and most naturally

•Wagner stressed a need for symmetry, as it provided self-containment,

completeness and balance
 Construction
“The role of the architect is to is to acknowledge new technical means arising from needs and
interpret them in a way suited to modern sensibility.”
-Mallgrave

•Wagner felt there was a break with the past because of the changes in modern
construction methods; new technical and material means needed new formal
solutions

•Need, purpose, material and construction are conveyed as the primitive “germs” of
architectural production

•Therefore, new purposes and materials lead to new methods of construction

•Construction gradually acquires artistic value, leading to art-forms

•The introduction of IRON was the main reason for this change of vision
OTTO WAGNER,S WORK

• Rumbach Street synagogue,

Budapest (1872)
• Postal Office Savings Bank
Building, Vienna (1894–1902
• Majolica House
(Majolikahaus), Vienna
(1898–1899)
• Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station
Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station

• Location: Vienna, Austria

• Time Period: 1892-1902
• Building Type: Urban
Railway Station.
• Construction: Steel and
Marble
• Style : Art Nouveau
Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station
DETAILS
Postal Office Savings Bank
Building, Vienna
• The Austrian Postal Savings
Bank is a famous modernist
building in Vienna.
• . It was constructed between
1904 and 1906 using
reinforced concrete.
• Wagner's first move away from
Art Nouveau and
Neoclassicism.
• Up to eight stories high, the
building occupies an entire city
block
Postal Office Savings Bank
Building, Vienna
• The massively simplified
facade of the bank clearly
owes something to classicism.
• The entire facade is covered
with square marble plates.
• These are attached to the
main brick structure with
mortar and ornamented with
iron bolts with aluminum
caps, which themselves form
a pattern.

ELEVATION
 Postal Office Savings Bank

• The hall is designed like an

atrium.
• A large glass skylight allowing
natural light to enter the heart of
the building at all times.
• To reduce the coast of electricity.
• . The frosted glass skylight is
pierced by steel columns, their
slim design making them as
unobstructive to the falling light as
possible