Karl-Heinz Ströhle und Martin Strauss: HENRY WIEN
Factsheet
Format: Art in Architecture
Location: 1170 Vienna, Lascygasse 25, residential complex
Architecture: Georg Lisner
Creation: 2005
Artists: Karl-Heinz Ströhle (1957 Bregenz – 2016, Silvretta), Martin Strauss (1957 Wasserburg am Inn, DE – 2010, Vienna)
Info/Scope: Ströhle and Strauss created a “vegetatively vibrant” interior courtyard design that over the years has transformed the communal space into a green area for residents and visitors to socialise.
Building dimensions: Complex of 118 apartments (86 subsidised and 32 privately financed rental apartments and condominiums of 53 to 125 m²).
Karl-Heinz Ströhle und Martin Strauss: HENRY WIEN
The factory grounds of Löwit & Comp. extended into Lascygasse, where Isidor Löwit produced patented and luxury cardboard boxes with 250 employees beginning in 1910. Aryanised as a Jewish company during the Nazi era (heirs were compensated after the war), the company continued to operate as Hilko Papier- und Pappewarenfabrik until the 1970s. In 2005, BUWOG built a residential complex on the site (designed by Georg Lisner). Karl-Heinz Ströhle and Martin Strauss – known for striking and socially critical statements in a variety of disciplines and a large number of architectural projects – won the Art in Architecture Competition for the interior courtyard design. The artists also focussed on the social aspect in this respect, for “beauty alone” was not enough for them. As a labyrinthine object of comfort with semi-circular hedges, autonomous pathways and small oases for play, the expansive courtyard invites residents of all ages to enter and make use of the vegetatively vibrant work, inspiring communication, interaction and a relaxed sense of idleness. The growing intervention is to be understood as pioneering artistic work that creates a better microclimate in both real and metaphorical terms – many years before the topic of “climate protection” was tackled everywhere by art.