Joseph Olbrich, Builder of "Setzession"

Viennese architect Joseph Maria Olbrich (Joseph Maria Olbrich; 1867–1908) lived a short life - at forty years old he died of leukemia. At the same time, Olbrich managed to leave a huge inheritance, including world -famous buildings. This is primarily the house of Secession in Vienna; The “Wedding Tower” and the House of the Colony of Artists at the “Heights of Mathyldenhöhe) near Darmstadt, as well as the multi -storey building of the Titsa department store in Dusseldorf.

In addition, Olbrihi has an important role in the ground buildings of the Vienna City Railway, planned by his mentor Otto Wagner. (Olbrich, in fact, was not so much a student of Wagner as his junior employee.)

From the point of view of the history of architecture, the Heritage of Olbrich - including its influence on contemporaries - is far from being mastered. It is unique in variety and scale: starting with its most famous building - the buildings of the Secession in Vienna - to the toy house for the early deceased daughter of the Duke of Darmstadt. Unfortunately, the war left only a small number of black tiles from the house, built by Olbrich for himself at the “altitudes of Matilda” ...

Obviously, Olbrich was brightly talented - so much that he actually had little architecture. He enthusiastically engaged in design, the device of a living environment surrounding the dwelling - that is, what is now called the environmental architecture. When Olbrich introduced a cottage with the garden at the World Fair in St. Louis (USA) in 1904, this work was so successful that the author was elected a corresponding member of the academy there.

Olbrich worked in Vienna, in Darmstadt and Dusseldorf. Austria considers him his artist; The Leopold Museum in Vienna continues to collect its archive. In 2008, by the centenary of the death of Olbrich, an academic exhibition dedicated to his work was arranged there.

Of course, the architect who built a “secession”-in fact, materialized the blurry concept of “a new style” in his Austro-German version in the form of an Aere Perennius object , thereby has already entered himself into the history of architecture. But what is interesting: the further works of Olbrich not only do not repeat the forms of the “secession” - they generally embody another style of spatial thinking.

If this is an individual residential building, then it will not have the usual division into the first, second, etc. Floors - and there will be a complex design of different -wide premises. If this is a public structure - this is the house of artists in a colony at the “heights of Matilda” - then it is “flattened” in space in the form of a low parallelepiped, and only the so -called “wedding tower” built nearby is directed in height: it was nicknamed the “five fingers”.

The Setzession building was designed by Olbrich as a place for future art exhibitions and embodied the famous motto: "Everyone is his own art, every art is his own freedom."

I was lucky to examine the building itself from the inside precisely because at this time the next exhibition was only preparing. Not too large halls in themselves have no decor and impressive not in size, but proportions. In general, the “secession” as a monument of architecture, from my point of view, realizes the idea “ Greatness in the Small” : in the photo the building seems to be grandiose, in reality it is quite modest - and, I note, there is a certain mystery in it.

Olbrich, apparently, was the first to build a group of buildings at the “altitudes of Matilda”, but proposed a layout of a self -sufficient city structure. Unfortunately, his own house, and a significant part of the other houses of this colony, did not survive the Second World War (some houses can be judged by the surviving postcards).

As a designer Olbrich is interested in the courage of decisions: he designed furniture, clock, cutlery, etc. - the anniversary exhibition at the Leopold Museum in Vienna collected more than 300 exhibits.

The last building of Olbrich, completed after his death, is Titsa universal store in Dusseldorf. And here, reader, do not be lazy to open the site www.schoen-eventagentur.com/univermag-tica-v-dyusseldorfe-poslednya-rabota-geniya-olbrixa/-this is the blog of a resident of Dusseldorf, who restored the design stages of design and the archives the construction of this majestic and luxurious building.

Photos from sites :

www.5arts.info/olbrich-1867-1908/
www.herr-auktionen.de/katalogi/onlinekatalog/detailansicht/article/waschgeschir-olbrich/
http://architime.ru/architects/a_joseph_maria_olbrich.htm
www.wolfsonian.org/explore/collections/st-louis-1904-hof-im-pavillon-olbrich-court-pavilion-olbrich