Abteiberg Museum (Mönchengladbach, Germany: 1982)
Hollein’s design for this edgy contemporary art museum integrated angular structures amidst the cathedral and abbey of a quaint baroque village in West Germany, and managed to make it a striking yet seamless part of the landscape. The array of spaces, shapes, and designs was meant to present diverse means of presentation, yet stand on its own as a work of art.
Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Multidisciplinary is a tag thrown around quite often in the design and architecture world, but for Hans Hollein, a restless thinker and theorist, the concept was second nature. "Everything is architecture," said the architect, professor, writer and designer, whose work, especially with museums, earned him a Pritzker Prize in 1985.
Hollein made a formative trip across the U.S. in the ‘50s and ‘60s, studying at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley, and meeting architects he admired, such as Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson. But as the obscure nature of a road trip to see all seven towns named Vienna in the United States suggests, his heart was in Austria, the city where he practiced, and—over decades of creation and construction—helped shape the cultural landscape.
Two exhibitions, including Hans Hollein: Everything is Architecture, now at Museum Abteiberg, which he designed, and HOLLEIN, opening in June at MAK in Vienna, allow art and architecture fans to explore his legacy. Here, we present some of Hollein's most famous works.
