Hundertwasserhaus

Hundertwasserhaus is the most popular residential building in Vienna. It was built after the unusual concept of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser and has become one of the expressionist landmarks of Vienna.

Hundertwasser's views about art and architecture have sometimes been dismissed as "unserious kitsch". He acted against the conventional boring architecture of his time. For him, the reason of human misery was the sterile, grey, monotonous architecture. Hundertwasser believed that straight lines and right angles were "godless" and propagated a type of architecture in harmony with nature, with bright colours and whimsical shapes.

The Hundertwasserhaus is designed with undulating lines and lots of colours. The original plan was the building to have uneven floors, but for practical reasons this was never implemented. The roof is covered with earth and grass and large trees grow from inside the rooms, their limbs extending from some of the windows. Colourful solid pillars support the building and numerous stucco figures and ceramic mosaics decorate it. Hundertwasser did the design of the residential building free of charge, declaring that the investment was worth it to "prevent something ugly from going up in its place".

"A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm's reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm's reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardized man who lives next door."