Extension and adaptation of the University of Applied Arts, Vienna

摘要

Rich History Vienna's University of Applied Arts is an institution with a rich history and a promising present-day that forms a centre of competence for art-related and scientific research. Founded in Vienna in 1863 and based on the model of the South Kensington Museum in London, the Austrian Museum for Art and Industry is today known as the Museum für angewandte Kunst (Museum of Applied Arts) or, more familiarly, as MAK. The grand building on Stubenring was designed by Heinrich von Ferstel who also planned the neighbouring k.k. Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Decorative Arts), which moved into its building in 1877, ten years after its founding. This k. k. Kunstgewerbeschule was a hotspot of modernism and numbers Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Margarethe Schütte-Lihotzky among its graduates. The present-day University of Applied Arts also stands for innovation, interdis-ciplinarity and excellence. Between 1961 and 1965 the architects Max Feilerer, Eugen Wörle and Karl Schwanzer extended the Ringstrasse building to the east with a roughly 18-me-tres wide, almost 90-metres long, seven-storey block along the River Wien promenade. This is directly linked to the historic building by a three-storey connecting wing. Today this lower building with main entrance and porter's desk still functions as a distributor on Oskar Kokoschka Platz. In addition, the architects placed a pavilion-like, light-flooded sculptors' studio in the courtyard.