researching and telling the history of the built environment

Monat: März 2020

»CALIFORNIA DREAMING: RICHARD NEUTRA AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CALIFORNIAN MODERNITY« (Vienna, April 1-3, 2020)

Cancelled because of the Corona-Crisis!

Movie Screening and Conference honors Viennese born Architect and Thinker

Richard Neutra, Kaufmann House, Palm Springs, CA, 1946 (c) Oliver Sukrow, 2019.

California’s culture and lifestyle are often thought to epitomize beauty, optimism, technological innovation, and future potentiality. In this conference, we will explore the cultural history of California, particularly its Viennese influences, through the example of the émigré architect Richard Neutra (1892–1970), who was crucial in the development of ‘Californian Modernity.’

The point of departure for this conference is Richard Neutra’s architectural practice, which found its ideal environment in Los Angeles. Neutra designed beautiful minimalistic houses that connected inside and outside and promoted the physical and mental health of their inhabitants. An international group of speakers will analyze the diverse and entangled sources of Neutra’s work and thought, including his interest in psychoanalysis and his concept of biorealism. We will discuss the links between the ideas of the 1920s avant-garde in Europe and the hippie avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s in California. The conference thus aims to explore the global history of what might be called Californian Modernity—which continues to exert a profound influence on contemporary culture—and to deepen our understanding of the complex relationships between architecture and landscape, health and space, and of the cultural entanglements between Europe and the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries. The conference is the result of a collaboration between the IFK | University of Art and Design Linz, the Wien Museum, the Research Unit Art History at the Institute of Art, Building Archaeology and Restoration at TU Wien, and the Filmarchiv Austria.

April 1, 2020: Films related to Neutra’s work will be screened at METRO Kinokulturhaus ( https://www.filmarchiv.at/en/program/special/richard-neutra/).

CONCEPT: Andreas Nierhaus (Wien Museum), Johanna Richter (IFK), Oliver Sukrow (TU Wien)

PARTICIPANTS: Klaus Benesch (Munich), Matti Bunzl (Vienna), Lyra Kilston (L.A.), Barbara Lamprecht (Pasadena), PJ Letofsky (L.A.), Joaquin Medina Warmburg (Karlsruhe), Monika Platzer (Vienna), Harriet Roth (Vienna), Elana Shapira (Vienna), Tobias Zervosen (Munich).

VENUE: METRO KINO, IFK, WIEN MUSEUM MUSA

Source: http://www.ifk.ac.at/index.php/kalender-detail/california-dreaming-richard-neutra-and-the-significance-of-californian-modernity.html

Richard Neutra: George E. Wise House, Los Angeles, 1957. Foto: Julius Shulman © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10).

Seminar »Landscapes of Health in Vienna around 1900. Architectures and Spaces of Convalescence«

Joint Seminar of TU Wien and BOKU Wien focusses on the production of »healthy spaces«

Update July 2020: We published a booklet on the seminar’s topics (https://kunstgeschichte.tuwien.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/Wiener-Gesundheitslandschaften-und-Architekturen-der-Genesung-um-1900.pdf)!

Update March 2020: We moved the whole seminar into the digital space!

In the summer term 2020, this joint seminar is devoted to Viennese landscapes of health around 1900. Through the study of prominent examples of architecture and landscape design for recovery, we explore a specific look at the history of architecture in Vienna. We examine the development of different health and architecture concepts that were always closely interwoven with social changes and at the same time reflect technological and scientific progress. We aim for an overview of the architectural and historical development of Viennese health architecture and landscape design around 1900. By analyzing selected buildings, participants should learn to research building history, to grasp the typology of the respective building, to think about materials, construction, and equipment and to describe it with the correct architectonic terms. The history of the healthy landscape is revealed through the history of the hospital as a building type and through landscape design, which is why both will be contextualized and studied.

A collaboration of the Institute for Landscape Architecture (ILA) of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, and the Research Unit Art History of the Technical University Vienna.

Staff:

Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Ulrike Krippner

Maria Harmann, BSc.

Univ.Ass. Dr.phil. Oliver Sukrow, M.A.