Modern Architecture: A Guidebook for His Students to This Field of Art

by Otto Wagner, Harry Mallgrave (Introduction)

This series offers a range of heretofore unavailable writings in English translation on the subjects of art, architecture, and aesthetics.Wagner's manifesto is a plea for an end to architectural eclecticism and for a more rational approach to design suited to contemporary life.

Genres: Architecture

200 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 1988

Reviews

[putperest · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful window into the mind of one of the most important architects of the late 19th century period. This is where the inventive flame of the modern movement started. However much it was turned into a travesty of forced ideology first, later tastelessness, then later still into lazy apathy towards any sense of beauty - we can clearly see in these proto-modernists that they were incredibly concerned with aesthetics in the purest sense. They were against any sort of cheap imitations of the past, faux detailing and dishonest designs. They wanted inventiveness, individuality balanced with harmony, and styles that represented their times. In my personal taste, this period is the highest peak of artistic styles, where inventiveness and individuality is valued to a great degree but the practice is still rooted in the tradition it belongs in, sees itself as the continuation of a centuries long progression, with ample sources of inspiration at its disposal.

Most of Wagner’s predictions regarding the future of modernism turned out to be true. Also his ideas regarding large cities, how to plan them, build them, and extend them are immensely valuable. It is incredible to see how art-focused the practice of architecture was in those days and how these artist architects designed and considered every aspect of a street, a block, a park, a piazza etc. His economic ideas are on point. Funny enough it’s interesting to see the cancer of “speculative vampire” already being a big problem in the 1890s- also the rise of the practice of architecture without much artistic considerations. If only he knew how bad things are going to get…