Woinovichgasse 13, 15, 17 and 19
Werkbundsiedlung
Vienna XIII
Austria
Adolf Loos 1931
The Werkbundsiedlung at the western edge of Vienna is one of several socially and architecturally progressive settlements created around Europe in the late 1920s and early 1930s, together with others at Stuttgart (Weissenhof), Breslau, Prague, Stockholm and elsewhere. The architectural innovators of the day were assigned plots in a new residential settlement, to create contemporary answers to low-cost family housing.
The Vienna Werkbundsiedlung has a mix of apartment blocks and individual houses, by international architects including Gerrit Rietveld, Richard Neutra and others as well as the local Adolf Loos.
Loos' two semi-detached houses are based on his Raumplan architecture with complex volumes and heights, keeping the open gallery and double-height central room of his larger, grander work (such as the Khuner house outside Vienna, also designed with Heinrich Kulka), but working here at a more domestic scale.
The opulent marble of his grander buildings is missing from these workers' houses, which therefore rely even more on the effective spaces and light created by the unusual Raumplan arrangement.
Simon Glynn 2007
How to visit
The Werkbundsiedlung is on the west edge of Vienna, reached with a little effort by bus.
From the Schloss Schönbrunn, to the southwest of town, take bus 58 further west out of town, along Hietzinger Hauptstrasse to the end of the line where it turns south on Spohrstrasse gasse. (Other Loos houses, including the Steiner House, are just a couple of blocks from this point if you want a short detour.) Then take the 55B further south, and follow this route as it turns west along Jagdschlossgasse. Jagdschlossgasse runs along the south edge of the Werkbundsiedlung. Woinovichgasse is a small sidestreet leading off to your right (north).
The map below is displayed at the site, to help you identify the different houses and architects there. To print a copy to carry with you, click on the image below for a pdf copy.
The cutaway model of the Loos house shown above is also on display at the site.
The houses in the Werkbundsiedlung are privately owned and not open to the public, but interesting to see from the outside.
For further direction, use Vienna's interactive map to locate the house; zoom out from the first map screen to show transportation routes etc.
Books and other web sites
Click the book title to view and to order direct
from
Adolf Loos (Taschen Basic Architecture)
August Sarnitz
A practical, readable, affordable guide to Loos houses (including this one) in Vienna and elsewhere, with addresses for visiting. If you like galinsky you should like this guide. Includes an introduction to Loos, and a full reprint of his article Ornament and Crime.
All links outside galinsky will open in a new window. Close it when you've finished, or use the Window menu on your browser, to return to galinsky.