The Hundertwasser Haus Museum
This exceptional and weird building called Hundertwasser-Haus is an apartment house in Vienna, that was built after the idea and concept of one of the most famous contemporary Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. This expressionist landmark of Vienna is located right next to the city centre, and one of the sights you will least expect to find in an "old fashioned" city like this. Go and have a look - you will be amazed!
Today the Hunderwasserhaus has 52 apartments that are inhabited by normal families..... but now being one of the most attractive and visited building sights in Vienna, it must be a nightmare for people living there!
In beginning of 1980 Hundertwasser started with the conversion of a complex of public housing unit into a bizarre looking colorful patchwork with irregular patterns and varied window shapes. When it was completed two years later, his fantastical creation caused quite a stir among Viennese officials and some architecture critics quickly dismissed his work as kitsch.
However, the Hundertwasserhaus - as it became known - was a hit with the general public and local Viennese, and soon started to attract visitors to this otherwise and formerly very quiet residential area.
A bit more info on the design: The Hundertwasserhaus is designed with undulating lines, since Hundertwasser considered the straight line 'godless'. It features undulating floors, a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. Even uneven floors were planned, but for practical reasons this was never implemented.
Not unlike Barcelona's artist Gaudí before him, F. Hundertwasser reacted against the conventional boring architecture of his Austrian contemporaries and wanted architecture that was closer to nature - without any unnatural straight lines but with bright colors and whimsical shapes. Surprisingly, Hundertwasser took no payment for the design of the house, declaring that it was worth it, to prevent something ugly from going up in its place instead..... well, it worked!
