1928: The Graz Werkbundhaus

The Styrian Werkbund (work federation of architects, artists, builders) was founded in 1923 as a regional association, in contradistinction to the Austrian Werkbund, which focused exclusively on Vienna and had a close relationship to the German national homeland protection movement (Heimatschutz). As part of the 800-year anniversary of the state capital Graz, the Werkbund presented a fully furnished model home in the Schubertstraße as a way of highlighting its objective of reconciling international and modernist metropolitan architecture – perceived as cold and soulless – with “local” and “native” traditions. Built according to plans from architect Hans Hönel, the red painted flat-roofed cube-shaped house with green window shutters and functional bourgeois solid-wood furniture was a counter-manifesto to the Stuttgart Weißenhof Estate (1927) of the German Werkbund and its steel-pipe interiors. It was made accessible to the public via guided tours and lectures.

External Resources:

https://www.nextroom.at/building.php?id=28909

Antje Senarclens de Grancy: Keine Würfelwelt. Architekturpositionen einer „bodenständigen“ Moderne – Graz 1918-1938, Graz 2007.