Josef Hoffmann

Austria

Person

Designer

Born 15 December 1870 Pirnitz (now Brtnice, Czech Republic), Austria-Hungary Died 7 May 1956 Vienna, Austria Josef Hoffmann studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 1892 to 1895, joining Otto Wagner’s master class in 1894 and later working in Wagner’s architectural office. In 1897 he became a founding member of the Vienna Secession and from 1899 to 1936 taught as a professor at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts. In 1903 he co-founded the Wiener Werkstätte with Koloman Moser and Fritz Waerndorfer, playing a central role in shaping its design programme. His most important works include the Purkersdorf Sanatorium near Vienna, Palais Stoclet in Brussels and the Cabaret Fledermaus in Vienna. After leaving the Secession with the Klimt group in 1905, he served as head planner of the 'Wiener Kunstschau' in 1908. Hoffmann was a co-founder of the Österreichischer Werkbund and designed, among other projects, the Austria House for the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Cologne (1914), the Austrian pavilion at the Paris Exposition des Arts décoratifs et industriels modernes (1925) and the Austrian pavilion for the Venice Biennale (1934). From the 1920s onwards, he completed numerous housing developments for the municipality of Vienna, including four terraced houses in the Vienna Werkbundsiedlung. Following the dissolution of the Wiener Werkstätte in 1932, he continued his architectural practice into the 1950s.