New Interior: The Viennese Domestic Design and the Beginnings of the Wiener Wohnkultur traces how Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos and Oskar Strnad each staked out a distinct vision of modern domestic life in the seven years before World War I — and why that three-way split still shapes how we think about interiors today.
About This Book
In the early twentieth century, Vienna was a crucible for competing ideas about how people should live. This book focuses the lens on a specific, generative tension: three architects — Hoffmann, Loos and Strnad — working in the same city, at the same moment, arriving at radically different answers to the question of the modern interior. Christopher Long traces their debates, their built works, and the philosophical positions underpinning each designer's approach to Wohnkultur, the German concept of dwelling culture. The result is a precise account of how the imperatives of style, function and livability came apart — and why that fracture remains unresolved. Essential reading for anyone engaged with the history of modernism and domestic space.
Key Features
- 128 pages of architectural history examining Viennese modernist domestic interiors
- Authored by Christopher Long, architectural historian
- Case studies centred on Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos and Oskar Strnad
- Published by KANT, ISBN: 9788074374296
What You'll Discover
- How three leading Viennese modernists developed divergent and competing theories of interior design within the same pre-war cultural milieu
- The meaning and significance of Wohnkultur — dwelling culture — as a framework for understanding early twentieth-century domestic architecture
- The relationship between these architects' interior work and the broader Secession movement that shaped Vienna's built environment
- Why the tension between style, function and livability first crystallised in this period remains a live question in contemporary interior design
About the Author
Christopher Long is an architectural historian whose work focuses on Viennese modernism and the built culture of early twentieth-century Central Europe. His research engages closely with the lives, debates and projects of the key figures of the Secession era.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 128
- Dimensions: 22.9 x 14.6 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9788074374296
- Publisher: KANT
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and interior designers with a grounding in modernist history, students of architectural theory, and researchers focused on the Viennese Secession, early modernism, and the history of domestic space.