ARST 457.02 History of Architecture and Human Settlements II -The Rise of Modernity, 1750 to the Present Professor: Graham David Livesey Otto Wagner Wiener Stadtbahn, Vienna’s Metropolitan Railway System Winter 2015 April 7th, 2015 Danais Ponce ID: 10079896 1 The stations for the elevated and underground "Wiener Stadtbahn”, also known as the Vienna Metropolitan City Railway, are one of Vienna’s better-known examples of early Art Nouveau architecture. Designed by Otto Wagner (1841-1918), the stations acquired architectural relevance as they broke with tradition by insisting on function, material, and structure as the bases of architectural design.1 Vienna’s city railway line exemplifies Wagner’s ability to lend artistic refinement to the work of the engineer, while achieving a unity of form and function that was well ahead of his time.2 It is in fact this ability that separated Wagner from contemporaries such as the unimaginative architectural dilettantes of the International Association for Public Building in Paris.3 Thus, by allowing Wagner to built the Stadtbahn the Viennese municipal council permitted the formation of the strongest influences on European architecture even well before war, creating work that led directly to the architecture of the present day and saving the city from the tasteless design drawn up by the English engineers.4 For that reason these stations are considered one of Otto Wagner’s masterpieces and one of his most famous works. Ultimately, his designs for the Wien Stadtbahn stations led him to be recognized as the pioneering Viennese architect and representative of the European Art Nouveau era.5 However, in order to clearly understand the relevance of Wagner’s railway stations and his contribution to architecture, it is necessary to get acquainted with the historical context of the city of Vienna. The "Gründerzeit" period of the late nineteenth century in Austria, under the reign of emperor Franz Joseph I (1848–1916), was a time of intensive industrialization, investment, speculation and growth.6 Between the years 1850 and 1920 the metropolis of Vienna, one of the numerous centers within the Austro-Hungarian monarchy; became the hub of a vast, multi-racial empire, attracting thousands of citizens from far-flung provinces and countries.7 Thus, the population of the capital increased more than four-fold during the reign of the Emperor, from less than half a million in the 1850s to over two million inhabitants by 1910.8 As a result, Vienna became one of the largest cities in the world, the third most densely populated region in Europe and the economic and administrative center of a multi-ethnic nation.9 1 The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Otto Wagner | Biography - Austrian Architect." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Accessed March 23, 2015. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/633917/Otto-Wagner. 2 Waissenberger, Robert. Vienna, 1890-1920. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1984, 176 3 Geretsegger, Heinz, and Max Peintner. Otto Wagner, 1841-1918; the Expanding City, the Beginning of Modern Architecture, New York: Praeger, 1970, p.50 4 Ibid, 50, Wien, Kaiser and Platzer. Architecture in Austria in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Berlin: Birkhäuser Verlag, 2007, 39 5 "Otto Wagner's Stadtbahn Pavilions." – Vienna now or never. Accessed March 20, 2015, http://www.wien.info/en/sightseeing/sights/art-nouveau/wagners-stadtbahn-pavilions. 6 Vergo, Peter. Art in Vienna 1898-1918: Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele and Their Contemporaries. London: Phaidon, 1975, 9 7 Ibid, 9; Wien, et al., Architecture in Austria in the 20th and 21st Centuries, 39 8 Ibid, 9 9 Wien, et al., Architecture in Austria in the 20th and 21st Centuries, 39 2 However, the expansion of the city led to the development of a critical transportation problem within Vienna. Transportation issues were accelerated mainly due to the large influx of people flocking to the imperial capital from all corners of the Habsburg Empire, which lead to the second phase of urban expansion.10 The expansion, realized in 1890, expanded the city by demolishing the old city walls that separated Vienna from its vororte or suburbs.11 In order to solve traffic issues, the city aimed to create major traffic lines that would match roads and means of mass transportation with the seemingly ever-increasing population of Vienna and be used simultaneously to transport military freight. To achieve these goals, the city proposed the construction of a metropolitan rail network as a special commission in the year 1898-89. 12 Thus, a competition for metropolitan railway system was announced in 1890 by the municipal authorities following the incorporation of the outer districts.13 In 1893 Wagner’s entry won the competition for the general regulation of the city, for which he was appointed the general planner of the Vienna Stadtbahn and adviser to the Transport Commission.14 As the winner, Wagner was commissioned to undertake the overall architectural planning of Vienna’s first public transport system, which provided a plan for six lines in all - two more than were actually built.15 The Stadtbahn plan had four individual lines: the Gürtellinie, the wiental-Donaukanallinie, the Wientallinie and the Vorortelinie or Line to the second district or suburbs.16 Most of these lines were on the “inner network”, therefore one of the two additional lines was supposed to run close to the Ringstrasse, while the other was projected to run along the outer belt.17 When the construction of the Stadtbahn started in 1893, the general layout comprising the Outer Suburban, Gürtel, Wien Valley and the Danube Canal lines, had already been determined.18 The Stadtbahn lines were laid out to connect the main railroad terminals in the city and to improve Vienna's position as the capital of the empire.19 Yet, as the adviser to the Transport Commission and general planner, Otto Wagner was called in to advise on the aesthetic aspects of the scheme.20 10 Ibid, 40 11 Waissenberger, Robert. Vienna, 1890-1920, p.50; City of Vienna. "Municipal Housing in Vienna. History, Facts & Figures." Accessed March 20, 2015. https://www.wienerwohnen.at/.../1.0Wiener-Gemeindebau-engl.pdf 12 Vergo, Art in Vienna 1898-1918, 9; Geretsegger, et al., Otto Wagner, 1841-1918; the Expanding City, 48 13 Wien, et al., Architecture in Austria in the 20th and 21st Centuries, 46; Ylimaula, Anna. Origins of Style: Phenomenological Approach to the Essence of Style in the Architecture of Antoni Gaudi, C. R. Mackintosh and Otto Wagner. Oulu: Univ. of Oulu, 1992, p.131 14 Vergo, Art in Vienna 1898-1918, 95-96 15 Geretsegger, Heinz, and Max Peintner. Otto Wagner, 1841-1918, p.50 "Stadtbahn Pavillons." Lonely Planet. Accessed March 22, 2015. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/austria/vienna/sights/landmarks-monuments/stadtbahn- pavillons#ixzz3VEDx17k6. 16 Geretseggeret al., Otto Wagner, 1841-1918, 47 17 Ibid, 47, 50; Ylimaula, Origins of Style, 131 18 Waissenberger, Vienna, 1890-1920, 172 19 "Otto Wagner's Stadtbahn Pavilions." – Vienna now or never 20 Waissenberger, Robert. Vienna, 1890-1920, 172 3 So as to manage the large-scale project and speed up work on the city railway, Wagner set up a large drawing office in which he installed some seventy collaborators, bringing together a group of talented architects such as Olbrich, Hoffmann, Max Fabiani and Leopold Bauer.21 As a result, Wagner and his team designed not only the 40km steam powered Stadtbahn network but also the station buildings, bridges, viaducts, embankments, arches, columns and tunnel entrances along the track.22 Overall the Stadtbahn was planned to accommodate more than thirty stations, some of them quite extensive with platforms, staircases, signal boxes and booking offices.23 These stations can be classified in two types: the stations for the lines running in cuttings below ground level and the elevated stations.24 In this manner, the architect approach was unique in that he was able to provide each line with its own individual character and integrated them with the body of the city, heightening the perception of the city’s hilly topography.25 The Stadtbahn stations bring to life several characteristics and qualities of Wagner’s distinctive and revolutionary style. First, the Stadtbahn stations designs exemplify Wagner’s demands for truth and honesty to materials as the base of innovation in architectural design.26 For instance, the use of new materials such as concrete, glass, marble, aluminum and ebonite by Otto Wagner were considered “pure new words” as no architect would have thought of suchlike at the time when the Landerbank was being built.27 Thus, even though Otto Wagner did not invent these materials, he “discovered them” and gave them their up-to-date significance by revealing their practical and aesthetical application for architecture.28 Therefore, the use of new building materials and proportions in the Stadtbahn stations designs gave rise to new methods of construction, encouraged new decorative and monumental means of expression and reduced the demands of the day to one radical formula: glass and iron.29 Yet, Wagner was convinced that forms must correspond not only to new materials but also to contemporary needs if they are to be found suitable for mankind today.30 The latter statement manifest of a second important characteristic present on Wagner’s style: his conviction that the sole departure point for art and architecture should be within the context of modern life.31 To Wagner the architect was supposed to be a modern man that takes into account the colossal, technical and scientific advances of our age, as well as the practical requirements of the present in order to produce structures fit for modern humanity.32 Thus the architect task was 21 Ibid, p.172 22 Ibid, 172; Vergo, Art in Vienna 1898-1918, 98 23 Ibid, 98 24 Wien, et al., Architecture in Austria in the 20th and 21st Centuries, 46 25 Ibid, 46; Waissenberger, Vienna, 1890-1920, 173 26 Vergo, Art in Vienna 1898-1918, 91 27 Ibid, 104 28 Ibid, 104-105 29 Ibid, 100, 104,105 30 Ibid, 93 31 Ylimaula, Origins of Style, 127 32 Vergo, Art in Vienna 1898-1918, 93; Schezen, Roberto, and Peter Haiko.