|
Az W Classic: Karl Mang celebrates his 90th birthday on 5th October On 28.11.2012 at 7 pm the Architekturzentrum Wien is holding a celebration in his honour. A doyen of Viennese architecture turns 90 – the Architekturzentrum Wien, the Chamber of Architects and Consultant Engineers for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, and the Künstlerhaus Wien will congratulate him and hold a celebration. A lecture by art historian Markus Kristan will be followed by a discussion between Karl Mang and Manfred Nehrer, architect and former President of the Künstlerhaus Wien. Karl Mang (born 1922) studied at Vienna University of Technology and in 1954, together with his wife architect Eva Mang-Frimmel, opened an office in Vienna. Unusually for the post-war period, as a result of a number of commissions from the Federal Economic Chamber he travelled extensively and documented his trips in an extensive slide collection and innumerable hand sketches. Meetings with pioneers of the avant-garde – including Roberto Burle Marx, Richard Neutra and Alvar Aalto – had a stimulating influence on Mang’s own work. Both the studio house for artist Lydia Roppolt (1967) as well as his summer house in the Waldviertel region (1972–78) are organically integrated in the landscape. Spaces of different heights that flow into one another are updated references to Loos’ Raumplan. His carefully considered use of exposed concrete as a design means reveals Mang’s interest in authenticity and the contemporary use of material. From 1972–1983 Karl Mang held the office of President of the Österreichisches Institut für Formgebung. Numerous designs for shop fitting-outs, exhibitions and trade fair buildings illustrate his intensive study of the history of furniture making. Mang’s Shaker and Thonet exhibitions are today still legendary and confirm his great interest in functional design paired with handcraft of true quality. At the start of the 1980s his office was commissioned to design the fittings for the imperial treasury museum in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. This was followed a short time later by the renovation of Palais Lobkowitz and the creation of a Museum of Theatre there. A sensitive examination of the historic building fabric is clearly legible in both these projects. His interest in the social aspects of building forms an important part of Karl Mang’s oeuvre: ‘We build for a broad mass of people and our efforts must take account of the patterns of many different people’s lives.’ Achieving optimal residential quality for all residents has always been a central concern in his planning. With the travelling exhibition ‘Communal Housing in Vienna 1923–1934’ Eva and Karl Mang were among the first to scientifically examine Viennese architecture of the interwar period. Up to the present day Karl Mang has continued to play an active role in the field of building. |
|
 |
|
© Johanna Mang |
|
Press page Current events Past events Information: Ines Purtauf Tel.: +43 (1) 522 31 15 - 25 Fax: +43 (1) 522 31 17 Email: purtauf@azw.at |
| © Architekturzentrum Wien 2024 |
 |
|
|
|
|