Karl Schwanzer

Karl Schwanzer was an Austrian architect. He was an important representative of post-war architecture, not only in Austria.

Already a middle school student, the architecture-enthusiastic Karl Schwanzer, together with his uncle (a carpenter), planned and built an allotment garden house for the family on Vienna's Schafberg in 1935. After graduating from the Federal High School in Vienna 7 in 1936, he completed his military service in the Austrian Armed Forces. Karl Schwanzer studied architecture at the Vienna University of Technology from October 1937. Immediately after passing his second state examination and being awarded the title of Diplom-Ingenieur (Diplom-Ingenieur), Karl Schwanzer moved to Rybnik in the then Reichsgau Upper Silesia in the fall of 1940 and worked there in the district building authority. After several other unsuccessful attempts, Karl Schwanzer finally found a dissertation topic in Sohrau (now Zory), just a few kilometers away, and received his doctorate in 1942 with a thesis entitled "New Building in Liberated Upper Silesia. The Ring in Sohrau. Disfigurement and Design" under Karl Holey. He wrote this thesis while serving as a design architect at Luftgaukommando VIII in Breslau. Due to the war, this German Air Force department, which planned airfields and anti-aircraft and air raid shelter structures, relocated to Kraków in the summer of 1942, where he worked with Oswald Haerdtl, among others. From March 31, 1945, Schwanzer took over the construction management of the "Prague-Rusin" airport (now Václav Havel Airport).

After the war, Karl Schwanzer found a job as technical director at the Allbau company in Bodenwöhr in Upper Palatinate, founded the "New Studio of Applied Arts," which produced, among other things, Christmas tree decorations and children's toys, and planned the reconstruction of the Obermünster Church and other church buildings on behalf of the Bishop of Regensburg. In April 1946, he and his family were forced to repatriate to Austria. After an initial stay at Eferding Castle and in Linz, he became an assistant at the Academy of Applied Arts Vienna under Oswald Haerdtl in 1947 (until 1951) and opened his own architectural office, where he initially realized only smaller projects such as shop and exhibition buildings. From 1951 to 1955, Schwanzer was a member of the Society of Austrian Artists, and in 1952 he became a member of the Vienna Secession. Karl Schwanzer's international breakthrough came with his design for the Austrian Pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair (1958), which was rebuilt in 1962 in a slightly modified form for the Museum of the 20th Century in the Schweizergarten. Schwanzer's design set the tone for subsequent pavilion construction and was awarded the Grand Prix for Architecture at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958. That same year, Schwanzer was honored with the title Chevalier de l'Ordre de Léopold (Belgium) and the Silver Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria. In 1959, he received the City of Vienna Prize for Architecture.

Schwanzer was also a furniture and object designer and founded the Austrian Institute of Design (ÖIF) in 1958, thus becoming a pioneer of industrial design in Austria. From 1959 until his death, Schwanzer was a full professor of building theory and design at the Vienna University of Technology. In 1965/1966, he was dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Visiting professorships took him to Dortmund, Budapest, Darmstadt, and Riyadh, among other places. Schwanzer also sought to explore new avenues as a university lecturer. For example, after a study visit to the USA, he introduced group projects at the institute. He also continued to work as an architect. In 1967, he founded a second office in Munich. Schwanzer completed around 400 projects. His works in Vienna include the design for the new crypt room of the Capuchin Crypt (1959/1960), the new building for the Economic Development Institute of the Chamber of Commerce (WIFI; 1960 to 1963), the Philips House (1962 to 1964), the extension to the University of Applied Arts (1962 to 1965), the (new) Pötzleinsdorf Church (Christ the King's Church; 1960 to 1963), the Leopoldau Parish Center (1972), and the Augarten Retirement Home (1973 to 1975). Together with Kurt Hlawenicka, he presented a development project for the Franz Josef Station in 1974.

Schwanzer's aim was always to combine optimal technical, functional, and structural solutions as well as aesthetic ones, whereby his formal language certainly reflected their use.