Kunsthaus Wien - Vienna, Austria
N 48° 12.663 E 016° 23.595
33U E 603504 N 5340696
The KunstHausWien is a museum in Vienna, designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. This museum houses the world's only permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser's works.
Waymark Code: WMJ67N
Location: Wien, Austria
Date Posted: 09/30/2013
Views: 14
The museum was created through the renovation of the 1892 building which housed the Thonet furniture factory in a style commensurate with Hundertwasser's art. It stands less than half a mile from the Hundertwasserhaus, a municipally owned apartment block also designed by Hundertwasser and completed in 1986. The renovation was planned by Hundertwasser himself and carried out from 1989-91 with sponsorship from BAWAG P.S.K. The museum was opened in April 1991.
The entire building is designed in typical Hundertwasser style, with wavy, undulating floors and a notable lack of straight lines. Bright, glaring colours are used throughout, and foliage abounds. There is a fountain in the foyer, and a restaurant with abundant plant life reminiscent of a winter garden. An unevenly winding staircase leads to the main part of the exhibition on the upper floors. To keep the rooms flooded with daylight, Hundertwasser, who was said to be fond of sunlight and therefore windows too, had a glass frontage built in front of the facade.
The museum was built in a traditional manner, but decorated with enamelled, checkerboard mosaics on the facade and adjacent sections. In contrast to Antonio Gaudí, Hundertwasser used symmetrical mosaic stones, carefully arranged. The size of each stone is likewise not accidental, which is rare for building-mounted mosaics that are not industrially manufactured. The mosaics cover only certain (non-load-bearing) parts of the surface, and contribute to the trademark features of the building: the incorporation of nearly every part of the facade into an overall picture, and the very deliberate concealment of the boundaries between floors.
Name: Kunsthaus Wien
Location:
Untere Weissgerberstrasse 13
1030 Vienna
Phone Number: +43-1-712 04 91
Web Site: [Web Link]
Agency/Ownership: Private
Hours of operation:
Daily, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Admission Fee: €10
Gift Shop: yes
Cafe/Restaurant: yes
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