Schlagwort: 1020wien

One of the highlights of a tour of the Prater Cottage in the 2nd district is the impressive clubhouse for the former “Cycling Club of State and Court Officials” in the Prater, designed by Austrian designer and Secession architect Joseph Maria Olbrich. The central wooden main front, designed as a wide portal niche, is a reminiscent of the entrances to the pavilions of the Vienna city railway stations by Otto Wagner.

Olbrich received the commission in spring 1898, one month after the start of construction of the important Viennese Secession building near the Ringstrasse, which he had planned in the Viennese Art Nouveau style.

Shortly after completion, the club expanded from cycling to tennis. The pavilion, which has remained relatively undamaged despite various adaptations, is still used for this purpose today by the same club – now “SV Schwarz-Blau”.

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Evening view of the Danube Canal with a reflection of the inner city skyline at the „IBM Center“ on Obere Donaustraße in Leopoldstadt. The striking office building from 1969 was built according to plans by Viennese Arch. Georg Lippert on the site of the former Diana baths and renovated in 1999-2001.

The Georg-Emmerling-Hof municipal residential complex in the 2nd district – opposite Schwedenplatz – built in 1957 and renovated between 2019 and 2022 was named after the social democratic politician and Viennese deputy mayor (1919-1934) Georg Emmerling.

The building, designed by Arch. Rudolf Hofbauer, Elisabeth Hofbauer-Lachner and Leo Kammel, with six to seven-storey side wings flanking a single-storey building with a flat roof and store windows on the first floor, also has a landscaped courtyard.

In this courtyard there is also a sculpture of a goat by the sculptor Alois Heidel, who specialized in animal sculptures, whose emaciated appearance, probably alluding to the times of hardship survived during the Second World War, is said to have triggered discussions. Also worth mentioning is the two-storey half-sculpture Themroc from 2021 with a depiction of workers and two natural stone reliefs called „Market“ and „Harbour Motif“ on the façade facing the Danube Canal.

The Karmelitermarkt in the 2nd district is one of the oldest markets still in existence in Vienna. With over 17,000 visitors per week, it is one of the insider tips among Vienna’s markets.

There is a wide range of products on offer: in addition to cheese specialties, horse and bison meat, you can buy organic fruit and vegetables, various specialties such as honey, wood-fired bread and fresh fish or seafood. One of the largest farmers‘ markets in Vienna takes place on Saturdays in particular and around 60 squares are filled with colorful market activity.

As early as 1671, the market privileges granted by Emperor Leopold I allowed a weekly market for food and livestock to be held on the square in front of the Carmelite Church. In 1910, it was moved to the area still used today.

The bronze Nestroy Monument in honor of Johann Nestroy in the 2nd district was created by Viennese sculptor Oskar Thiede and originally unveiled at the nearby Nestroyplatz in 1929. After being placed in the Max Reinhardt Seminar for over 30 years, it returned near its original location in 1983.

The playwright, comedian, theater director and opera singer, born in Vienna in 1801, is shown here in the role of the main character „Blasius Rohr“ from the satirical farce „Glück, Missbrauch und Rückkehr“ (Happiness, Abuse and Return), who comes into wealth as a poor clerk, but loses everything through his pomposity and in the end is allowed to marry his beloved Babett.

Even during his lifetime, Nestroy was regarded as the central protagonist of the high point of the old Viennese folk theater in the first half of the 19th century, an Austrian form of theater which, due to its Viennese dialect, musical interludes and closeness to the realities of life, still enjoys a high degree of popularity among all sections of the population today.

At the western entrance to the WU campus in Leopoldstadt, which opened in Oct. 2013, is the striking building of the Executive Academy (EA) and the WU Alumni Club by Spanish Arch. Eduardo Arroyo Muñoz (NO.MAD Arquitectos, Madrid). In the black, twisted 4-story structure with different transparent and reflective aluminum and glass surfaces, the surroundings also show.

Stacked around the central installation core are different plans per floor with soundproofing acoustic floors, the multitude of windows respond to different uses, such as learning areas, arena-style lecture halls and quiet zones.

The architect, born in 1964, with his „non-cartesian“ geometry, is responsible for the Lasesarre Stadium and Plaza Desierto in Bilbao, Casa Levene and Zafra-Uceda House in Madrid and museum extensions, among others.

The Austrian architect and well-known draftsman „Ironimus“ Gustav Peichl is responsible for the planning of the 96m high trade fair tower in Leopoldstadt, which was erected in 2003. The trademark of Messe Wien is also considered a reminiscence of the Mannesmann Tower*, which was located there until 1987 and was a gift from the Düsseldorf company of the same name.

Built on parts of the site of the 1921 World’s Fair in the Prater, the Vienna Trade Fair was intended to improve the dismal economic situation after WWI. Despite complete destruction during WWII, the annual early and autumn fairs were very soon well attended again. In the course of the division of the fairgrounds, the current exhibition and congress center was built at the beginning of the 20th century, and to the south, among others, the WU campus.

*Fig. 2: Official Gazette of the City of Vienna, Vienna Library, 1956

One of the best-known buildings on the WU campus in Leopoldstadt in the Prater is WU’s central administration building (D3 AD) by Arch. Peter Cook & CRAB Studio of London, also known in Austria as the designers of the Kunsthaus in Graz.

The organically shaped, colorful building, graded with horizontal stripes, is especially notable for its rough wooden slats for shading. These probably represent a reference to the surrounding Prater with its wooded area. And the color and structure of the facade, which changes over time, probably represents the liveliness of the educational campus.

The idea of student life and thus Peter Cook’s program is also significant: „University has to be jolly good fun“.

The Nestroyhof of 1898 in the 2nd district according to plans by Oskar Marmorek in the Art Nouveau style was built as a multifunctional building (highly modern in today’s sense) for stores, theaters, film screenings, offices and apartments for his father-in-law Julius Schwarz and served, also because of its location, as a meeting place for Jewish culture in Vienna.

As a companion of Theodor Herzl and an avowed Zionist, Marmorek became known as an exhibition architect and also designed the famous (and later destroyed) „Venice in Vienna“ entertainment district in the Prater. A few years later he also built his most famous building today, the Rüdigerhof on the Rechte Wienzeile. To this day, a number of apartment buildings, villas and also the high-beam fountain on Schwarzenbergplatz, which he redesigned and illuminated, are reminders of the architect.

Despite a not uncontroversial restitution in the 1950s and due to private and municipal initiatives, cultural institutions, especially the „Theater Nestroyhof Hamakom“, exist again today on the ground floor and remind of the Nestroy halls formerly located there with top-class cultural programs until the interwar period.

Wünsche euch ein frohes neues Jahr und alles Gute für 2023!
Wish you a happy new year and all the best for 2023!
Le deseamos un feliz año nuevo y todo lo mejor para 2023!
Bonne année et meilleurs vœux pour 2023!
Vi auguriamo un felice anno nuovo e tutto il meglio per il 2023!
Желаю вам счастливого Нового года и всего наилучшего в 2023 году
Вітаємо Вас з Новим роком та бажаємо всього найкращого у 2023 році
新年のご挨拶と2023年のご活躍をお祈りいたします。
祝你新年快乐，2023年一切顺利
أتمنى لكم سنة جديدة سعيدة وكل التوفيق في عام 2023!
Życzę Wam szczęśliwego nowego roku i wszystkiego najlepszego na rok 2023!
Prajeme vám šťastný nový rok a všetko najlepšie v roku 2023!
Přeji vám šťastný nový rok a vše nejlepší do roku 2023!
Vă dorim un an nou fericit și toate cele bune pentru 2023!