I Heart Hundertwasser

Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000) was an Austrian born painter, architect, environmentalist, and activist. (I am obviously obsessed with early 20th Century Austrian art/artists)! He is widely known for his architecture and vibrant, organic paintings. He lived by the mantra that the straight line was "evil" and much preferred a beautiful organic line in buildings as well as paintings. He was well known for his Mouldiness Manifesto in which he stated that any renter should have the right to extend his arm out his window and chip at the facade and paint and create a space within arm's reach out the window that would let the inhabited publicly declare that "someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardised man who lives next door." Quite a unique concept!!

Hundertwasser was a strong believer in incorporating living plants into the architecture as well insisting on plants on rooftops and plants growing out of windows. Some ideas for his buildings included uneven floors and irregular windows and said for these reasons the buildings would be constructed quicker due to the fact that the workers liked working there. He found the workers to be interested in creating unique spaces and in turn did not feel like robots. Hundertwasser was really incorporating freedom of life into every aspect that went into the building. He had many architectural concepts he developed. One that I would have loved to see developed was his model of a green motorway. Pictures of these models are also included below. As well as pictures of his living roof house in New Zealand a land that he felt deeply connected to and considered to be his true home. I think Hundertwasser was way ahead of his time, and just right for ours. He was a true visionary.

Text and images compiled from different sources but mostly Wikipedia and Taschen.