About this talk

Running time: 30 minutes

Hans Hollein, Viennese born and educated, continued his architectural studies in the USA during the 1950s and then worked in Australia, South America, Sweden and Germany before starting to practise in his hometown. Here he was also Professor of Architecture at the Academy of Applied Art.

He was for many years editor of the magazine "Bauâ", actively criticising, in words, drawings and projects, the functionalism of the Modern movement, protesting that "everything is architecture" and that "we give back to man the joy of building". Artist as well as architect, and leader of the avant-garde, he has lectured, worked and organised major exhibitions in his own and other countries. Among the awards he has received was the coveted Pritzker Prize in 1985.

In his designs he exaggerates the Viennese tradition for altering old meanings by means of new relationships, doing this with consummate skill and wit. He sees architecture as ritual - in addition to being a means of preserving body temperature - and he uses transformation, whether of size, scale, materials or function, as a basic design tool.

In his talk, he enlarges on these ideas, illustrating them with some of his work, culminating in the beautiful art museum at Mönchengladbach. This, his first large completed building, represents a synthesis of his thoughts.

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