Office Building Grothusen (1970) in Vienna, Austria, by Gunther Wawrik. Photo by Konstanze Zinssler.

Hans Puchhammer & Gunther Wawrik - Haus M. (1960-1962)

House Dr. O. (1970-71) in Eisenstadt, Austria, by Hans Puchhammer & Gunther Wawrik

House Markart (1960-61) in Perchtoldsdorf, Austria, by Hans Puchhammer & Gunther Wawrik. Photo by Margherita Spiluttini.

Austrian architect Gunther Wawrik (*1930) regards himself as an architectural tinkerer who deliberately chooses the time-consuming process of constant crafting over intellectual contemplation to find a solution. In 2000 the Fachhochschule München, where Wawrik held a professorship since 1985, dedicated a retrospective exhibition to his work that was accompanied by a small catalogue bearing the fitting title „Gunther Wawrik. Architektur zwischen Bricolage und Instrument“. The latter plays at Wawrik’s working method and its relation to Claude Lévi-Strauss’ definition of the Bricolage as a problem solution derived from available resources and entailing a great deal of improvisation. In his eponymous text included in the catalogue Wawrik elaborates on his passion for the Bricolage and the artisanal. Accordingly the major part of the book not only documents Wawrik’s architectural oeuvre and the many buildings he designed together with his long-term partner Hans Puchhammer but also puts particular emphasis on the details developed by Wawrik. Key buildings like the Grothusen office building in Vienna and the Landesmuseum Burgenland are presented in photos and plans that demonstrate the ingenious details developed by the architects and their intelligent dealing with existing contexts. In his introductory essay architectural critic Otto Kapfinger also sheds light on Wawrik’s great service to the ÖGFA, the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Architektur, which he helped turn into an open discussion forum for contemporary architecture, a transformation that very much represented his own personality.

„Gunther Wawrik. Architektur zwischen Bricolage und Instrument“ is a brief but nonetheless informative overview of an important protagonist of Austrian postwar architecture.

Office Building Grothusen I (1968-70) in Vienna, Austria, by Gunther Wawrik. Photo by Margherita Spiluttini.

House Markart (1960-62) in Perchtoldsdorf, Austria, by Hans Puchhammer & Gunther Wawrik

Hans Puchhammer & Gunther Wawrik - Haus M. (1960-1962)

Fotos © Margherita Spiluttini