Villa Beer - Josef Frank
Villa Beer (1929-1930) was designed by Josef Frank and Oskar Wlach, many believe it is on par with other important Modernist buildings by architects such as Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Adolf Loos.
I first became aware of Josef Frank's work last year when there was a show at the fashion & textiles museum of his inimitable textile & pattern work, sadly I didn't make it to the show. When I stumbled across the Villa Beer a few weeks ago I was surprised to find out the same man was behind it. I learn't that Frank was a trained architect and sadly Villa Beer in Vienna seems to be one of the few house's he was able to have built. Later in his life he made dozens of meticulously detailed paintings of houses. The 'fantasy' houses in the paintings were ones that he longed to build. The paintings have previously been displayed at the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art in a show called 'Josef Frank: Against Design' you can read more about the show and the man over on the NY times. 3 of frank's house paintings were on display at the fashion and textiles museum but you can see more here
An article also written on Disegno last year states that Villa Beer is now threatened with dissolution. The house Frank built to function as a cohesive unit is to be split up into three separate apartments, by its current owner, completely effacing the architect’s plan. Read more here . There is a petition to SAVE VILLA BEER here.
