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- What was the architect’s design intention for the building?

Showcase imperial Vienna which have been develop from the mid-1800s. Lined with buildings that epitomise Austrian power and prosperity, such as the Opera, theater, University and the Parliament.

Ambiguous relationship with the rest of the surrounding buildings. Set back from the street on the small square, producing the effect of discovery or surprise. It was also that the brutal façade did not upset the balance of the rest of the buildings on the avenue.

The bank wanted to be the bank of the little saver in alternatives of the huge banks of the financial world.

He had imagined a much more sumptuous façade, statue symbolising commerce and banking, were to look down on a blue ceramic freeze dotted with gold and an image of the prosperity the empire was giving to the people.

The finished building however had no sign of this symbolism. Why do more when these decorative were to be seen only from below?

Wagner was fascinated of the office blocks as one of the main elements of the modern city. The main bank was built to accommodate 2,700 employees and to be a rational and efficient place of work. There were no supporting walls which allowed for flexible open plan offices lit by windows of huge dimensions for the time. This allow the offices to adapt easily to today’s requirements.

Wagner was obsessed with cleanliness which he thought a necessity for modern man. He insisted on installing 25 cloakrooms, 175 hand basins, 178 toilets and 28 urinals, this hospital like precision was meant to create the perfect building for the modern workers.

- Was/Were there specifc issues that Otto Wagner wanted to address and how did he do that?

The bank needed a headquarters that match its success and its image of banks that were different.

What interested Wagner was size. He could test out his new theories on this building. The modern has lost its perspective on the small and intimate. It has grown use to long, straight lines, wide surfaces and large masses which limited work in simple shapes.

The other buildings mask the real magnitude of the bank. Framing the main faced, they hide the two lateral wings. Though only part of the façade can be seen from the avenue, the bank covers a whole trapezium shaped block. It has a symmetrical construction built around five large courtyards which lend natural light to the building.

To speed up the openings of the headquarters, the bank was built in two stages.

He used brick walls that were cheap and quick to build, then dressing the bricks with inch thick slabs of marble and granite. This simple technique produce the necessary monumental appearance but with huge savings of time and money.

Cannot allow the choice of the style dictate architecture creation. The architect must create new forms, adapting those that best meet the construction techniques of time and the requirements of the era. It is the only way that it has true meaning.

This dressing allowed Wagner to create an aesthetically clean style, which kept some of its distance from one of the architecture styleof the period that buildings should be frank and clearly show the materials of the structure.

Wagner however did keep to this style by leaving on the view of the aluminium headed iron studs which fix the granite and marble to the brick wall. However, the slabs were fixed with mortar and the studs were unnecessary. The studs had a function but was in fact a decorative. The decorative studs bring the façade to life without detracting from its smooth surface.

During the mid-eighteen hundred, the large European banks has been welcoming their customers under glass roofs. This idea, originally used in department stores gave maximum natural lighting which reached the basement by slabs of glass in the floor. But Wagner had different plans, instead being similar to the department store, he created a space that was economical and functional more akin to a factory or railway station.

The money counters were pushed into the lateral nave so as not to disturb the purity of the central space marked out by the iron pillars.

Wagner claimed, works of art must always be a reflection to their time.

‘Nothing can be more beautiful if it is not functional’. In practice, however, we can see how Wagner does not always stick to his own rules and how strictly it was applied in the work areas such as the banking hall or in the mailing room, where the same pillars were used without the aluminium studs.

In the furniture, we find his useful trademarks, minimum decoration, one material placed on one another, again function justifies the practice as these plates limits wear or tear on the arms of the chairs.

Architecture must stop imitating the styles of the past, it must become a true reflection of our time, expressing simplicity, a functional nature and a military precision of a modern life.

- Explain the spatial experience and compare it with a local precedence. It may not be a public space. Discuss this project that you have highlighted and draw diagrams to explain its volumetric space planning in section.

The modern world based on anonymity and speed had only one fault in Wagner’s eyes: a distinct lack of orientation. He called this the painful uncertainty. Thus, the floor markings are much more of a decorative motif. They are there to indicate the principle direction of movement in his architecture.

Wagner’s colour coding followed strict lines, no mixtures, one colour per place depending on importance. The director’s office is red, whereas most of the spaces in the bank is in white. This is to make a contrast between the types of spaces as Wagner cares a lot about hierarchy.

- What were the materials used in the museum and what were the ornaments present?

The only features that really distinguish the façade from the rest of the buildings are the simple motifs and statues at roof level. And the very slight protrusion towards the square.

Marble, aluminium or linoleum, simple yet functional materials that were needed.

As for the colour, Wagner only choose monochrome. The splash of colour in the entrance is in the blue ceramic as a background for the statue. Colour was a code, it was a privilege.