Hundertwasserhaus, Vienna, Austria
Hundertwasserhaus, Vienna, Austria
Interior
Interior.
Where can you see the weird and wonderful Hundertwasserhaus houses?
There's one in Vienna, capital of Austria. And the Quixote winery in California, USA.
Hundert is German for hundred which is a translation of the architect's name in a Slavic language (the word for hundred is sto). He hated straight lines. He loved bright colours.
It looks pink but it is the green citadel.
Hunderthaus Plochingen
Hundertwasser kirche. Kirche means church. The K is pronounced k, like the Scottish Kirk for church.
Kunst haus means art house or art gallery.
Ronald McDonald Haus. (Haus is German for house, and pronounced the same way.)
Uelzen Station.
USA
Starting in the USA, there's the Hundertwasser designed Quixote Winery.
The first weird building I saw was in the USA, was on holiday in New York when I was a student and I visited the spiral Guggenheim art Gallery, commissioned by the millionaire Gugenheim family. I had read Peggy Guggenheim's biography. Her ancestor went down on the Titanic. She inherited the family fortune and became a patron of the arts.
When I lived in the USA we went to see Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright. Expect the unexpected. The building is not looking at the waterfall but built over it, with water underneath making a paddling pool where you could sit with your feet in the water.
Now, next on my list is the Quixote Winery in California. Mr Hunderwasser is the architect. I am sure it is quixotic.
EUROPE: Austria, the Czech Republic and Spain
Over in Europe there's a Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, Austria.
We have seen the dancing house.
Czech Republic
The world's well known weird and wonderful buildings include the Dancing House in Prague, Czech Republic.
We had dinner there. The furniture is equally offbeat. The chair backs were weird shapes. The waiters gave us paper and crayons to create our own works of art.
Spain
In Spain see the hotel Marques de Riscal, which we saw on a side trip from Rioja in the north. It is named for a famous winemaker Marques de Riscal, which, I believe means the marquess of Riscal. I imagine he commissioned the building as a home or hotel. The designer is Frank Gehry.
Quite a long drive from Rioja, down side roads into a small village in the sides of a valley. Off a side road and just uphill looking down on the village, built into the cliffside, hidden, but huge when you reach the car park. Ofbeat from the get go. Up to the bedroom, along a winding corridor. The door number written in chalk on a slate board, as if they might change the numbers at will. The bath was in the middle of the bedroom.
See videos and photos of Gaudi's cathedral, and house, in Barcelona, Spain.
AUSTRALIA
In Sydney, see the Sydney Opera House, designed to remind you of a ship's sails.
Useful Websites
Overview with pix of several Hundertwasser buildings.
http://milenaolesinska.blogspot.com/2017/08/friedensreich-hundertwasser.html
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, has lived in the UK, USA, Spain and Singapore.
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