15.11.2022

In the footsteps of Otto Wagner – from the Wienzeilenhäuser to the Postal Savings Bank

The Acoustics Research Institute takes a city walk on the occasion of its staff outing

Otto Wagner: Large Banking Hall of the Postal Savings Bank - Art historian Mag. Suzanne Kříženecký leads one of the guided tours for the members of the Acoustics Research Institute of the ÖAW, © G. Ramphal

Next year, the Acoustics Research Institute (ARI) will move into the listed building of the Austrian Postal Savings Bank together with other institutes of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and further research facilities. The Postal Savings Bank (Österreichische Postsparkasse) was designed and built between 1904 and 1912 by Austrian architect Otto Wagner (1841-1918). The building combines architecture and interior design to a gesamtkunstwerk and is considered one of his major works.

The ARI prepared for the upcoming move to this historic building with a city walk to buildings by Otto Wagner. An art historian and an architectural historian guided the staff of the institute from the Wienzeilenhäuser to the station buildings of the Vienna Stadtbahn, such as the Art Nouveau pavilions on Karlsplatz and near the Stadtpark, and on to the Postal Savings Bank, conveying Wagner's urban planning ideas and the historical context and achievements of his work.