The Post Office Savings Bank is a milestone of Viennese Modernism. One of Otto Wagner’s masterpieces, the elegant building on Ringstrasse with its impressive counter hall presents particularly innovative solutions to technical-structural details while fulfilling the highest aesthetic standards.

• Bauzeit: 1903-1906
• PlanerIn: Otto Wagner
• Client: k. k. Postsparkasse
• Building type: Banks and stock markets
• Reachability: U1/U4 Schwedenplatz, tram 2, stop: Julius-Raab-Platz
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

At the time of construction, this 16-storey reinforced steel structure triggered many intense discussions. Not only because of its peculiar appointment with housing units for singles, a canteen-type kitchen with dining hall and restaurant facilities in the glazed loft storeys staggered one atop the other, Vienna’s first-ever high-rise has remained sensational.

• Bauzeit: 1930-1932
• PlanerIn: Theiss & Jaksch
• Client: Österreichisches Creditinstitut
• Building type: Residential
• Reachability: U3 Herrengasse
• Accessibility: Small, publicly accessible exhibition in the lobby
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

Once denigrated as the "house without eyebrows" despite its sumptuous ground-floor zone adorned by a variety of high-quality materials, this former store of the exclusive tailors Goldmann & Salatsch has over the decades become the destination of many an architectural pilgrimage. Situated right opposite the splendidly ornamented ensemble of Vienna’s Imperial Palace complex, Adolf Loos’ simple, uncluttered masterpiece proved a massive shock to early-20th-century public sensibilities.

• Bauzeit: 1909-1911
• PlanerIn: Adolf Loos
• Client: Leopold Goldman, Emanuel Aufricht
• Building type: Mixed use
• Reachability: U1/3 Stephansplatz, U3 Herrengasse
• Accessibility: Ground floor during banking hours
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

The tower erected on an elliptical layout with its indulgently clinging, "tilted" add-on, which functions as a lobby at ground level, offers maximum sophistication regarding façade design. The multifunctional hall with its convex/concave lattice shell serving as roof structure meets the expectations of contemporary multimedia appeal promised by the exterior.

• Bauzeit: 2001-2004
• PlanerIn: HNP architects
• Client: UNIQA
• Building type: Office and government
• Reachability: U1/U4 Schwedenplatz, U1 Nestroyplatz
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

As Austria’s biggest cultural complex, the MuseumsQuartier set within the revitalised ensemble of the former imperial stables dating from the 18th and 19th centuries constitutes an urbanistic axis that links old and new cultural spaces of Vienna through its modern implants, multifaceted institutions, squares and open spaces.

• Bauzeit: 1998-2001
• PlanerIn: O&O Baukunst, Manfred Wehdorn
• Client: Stadt Wien, MUQUA Errichtungs- und Betriebs GmbH, Republik Österreich
• Building type: Urban planning
• Reachability: U2-Museumsquartier, U2/U3-Volkstheater
• Accessibility: The open-air zones are publicly accessible, while the individual museums are accessible during normal opening hours
• A walk from the MuseumsQuartier to the historic city centre leads through the Imperial Palace or Hofburg (J. E. Fischer v. Erlach, J. L. v. Hildebrandt, G. Semper, C. Hasenauer and others, since 1279) – a complex encompassing numerous courtyards and a widely ramified network of individual buildings and wings that has evolved organically since the Middle Ages.
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

Simple tables and wooden chairs, freely hanging lighting fixture cables and an unplastered front are juxtaposed with a constellation of Oriental tiles set in a historic cross vault. Also due to the large glazed surfaces on both sides, this individualistic, very successful mix of different styles creates exquisite moods at any time of day.

• Bauzeit: 2001
• PlanerIn: Lacaton & Vassal, Feldbacher & Seehof
• Client: Architekturzentrum Wien
• Building type: Hotel and restaurants
• Reachability: U2-Museumsquartier, U2/U3-Volkstheater
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

After renovation, the Alte Aula now offers state-of-the-art premises with high-end equipment for events and exhibitions. The core of this space is the second-storey Jesuit Theatre with its historic ceiling fresco and a sliding partition featuring top-quality stage technology. The forecourt facing Bäckerstrasse can be used as a public stage with large projection surface.

• Bauzeit: 2005-2006
• PlanerIn: Rudolf Prohazka
• Client: Burghauptmannschaft Österreich, ÖAW
• Building type: Museums and exhibitions
• Reachability: U1/U3 Stephansplatz
• Foto: Rupert Christanell