The Austrian experimental scene of the 1960s marked the architecture of its time. It brought together a great generation of avant-garde Austrian architects and artists such as Walter Pichler, Hans Hollein and Raimund Abraham. This prestigious group notably influenced the (often theoretical) production of many international architects of the 60s and 70s. In successive exhibitions, architectural, urban and technological themes were questioned and models such as vertical city were explored.
Compact City, Primitive Forms and High Tech Language
With the Compact City project, Walter Pichler reinterprets architectural themes that were much discussed in the 1960s. He explored through modeling and drawing an alternative, mixing high-tech architecture and primitive influence.
Walter Pichler, Nucleus and Underground Building
Walter Pichler was an Austrian artist who produced a large number of drawings and sculptures, with the aim of exploring the relationship between object and space. Very influenced by the archaic civilizations he designed many projects of underground buildings articulated around nucleus, making these constructions real machines.
Palais de la Découverte, Technical Monumentality and Ovoid Forms
During the 1937 Paris Universal Exhibition, three adopted French architects proposed a highly technical building, the Palais de la Découverte (Palace of Discovery), far removed from the new theories of modern architecture.
La Maison de la Publicité, an High Tech Architecture Ahead of its Time
La Maison de la Publicité is a project designed by Oscar Nitzchke in 1936. The building, a kind of media machine, presents a façade with a fine metallic structure, covered with changing advertisements, long before the first examples of high-tech architecture.
Musée International d’horlogerie, a Troglodyte Architecture
The Musée International d’horlogerie (International Watchmaking Museum) in La-Chaux-de-Fonds could well be the first European experiment in contemporary troglodyte architecture as it was defined by Pierre Zoelly and Georges-Jacques Haefeli. It’s a buried building with remarkable spatial qualities supported by an efficient structure, constructed under a park in 1974.
Pierre Zoelly, a House for a Sculptor
At the end of the 1960s, the Swiss architect Pierre Zoelly designed a house for the sculptor Peter Hächler. He built a concrete structure, the organic heart of the house, which will be the perfect interlocutor for the sculptures it houses.
The Higüey Basilica, a Brutalist Cathedral in the Caribbean
After the Second World War an international competition was launched to build a basilica in the city of Higüey in the Dominican Republic. This city, which then had barely 10,000 inhabitants, saw the emergence of a monumental concrete cathedral at a time when its growing economic importance was just beginning.
The Navigation Manual of Jacques de Vaulx
Jacques de Vaulx (1557-1997) was a French cosmographer and navigator. He is mainly known for his handwritten navigation manual, as well as for his explorations in America. He is one of the emblematic Norman navigators of the 16th century.
Building Megalopolis, Benjamin Bardou
Benjamin Bardou is a French artist and filmmaker working on visual experiments in urban environments. He has made a series of short films in which different spatial components are displayed. These urban atmospheres are part of the Megalopolis project, an urban area developed in the aftermath of the World Wars