Behind the almost child-like designs, Friedensreich Hundertwasser wanted to recover the “dignity of man” ...
... which had “been violated in our unnatural and hostile urban grid system.”
Friedensreich Hundertwasser gave speeches in the nude. His buildings, towers, and fountains—scattered throughout Europe and Asia—look like something a child might draw, with wavy lines dividing one floor from the next and trees popping from the roof. After all, he once said, “the straight line leads to the downfall of mankind.”
Yet beyond the wackiness, the Viennese architect and artist was in many ways a visionary who helped to put sustainability and an earth-based approach to architecture on the map.
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Starting out as an artist, Hundertwasser also created tapestries, paintings, stamps, license plates, and sculptures. His architecture grew out from his art, and he didn’t make much of a distinction between a model for a utopian village where cows graze on roofs and a wall mosaic looking like something by Gustav Klimt on hallucinogens.
In Vienna, the Hundertwasser phenomenon is a tourist attraction. In a quiet neighborhood on the west side of the Danube, a former tire factory today known as Hundertwasser Village is one of the top shopping locations in the city. On the wall is a sign that quotes fromits namesake: “The flat floor is an invention of the architects. It fits engines—not human beings.”
It goes on: “An uneven and animated floor means to recover dignity of man which has been violated in our unnatural and hostile urban grid system. The uneven floor becomes a symphony, a melody for the feet, and brings back natural vibrations to man.”
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