Austria, smallish (about the size of Maine) and relatively
poor, is struggling to get back on its feet after the on-
slaughts of war--and postwar--upheavals. Its architec-
tural situation naturally reflects the crises the country
has experienced, and until recently emergency and
utilitarian building dominated construction. Now a cer-
tain security and affluence have appeared, and architec-
ture is beginning to blossom.

Austria's future contributions should be substantial,
for the seeds of modern architecture were planted early
here, and they flourished. In the first part of this century
Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, and Joseph Hoffmann--their
Viennese Sezession was an early revolt against the Art
Nouveau so prevalent throughout the Continent--pro-
duced works that were among the significant pioneering
designs of our time. The Steiner home in Vienna, built
by Loos in 1910, is generally held to be the first "mod-
ern" house. Although Loos never built extensively at any
time, and although he suffered an architectural aberra-
tion with his Doric-column skyscraper proposal for the
1923 Chicago Tribune competition, this "Viennese Soc-
rates"--as his distinguished pupil Richard Neutra calls him
--was, from 1910 until his death in 1933, one of the great
architectural catalysts in Austria. Le Corbusier has pro-
claimed him: "one of the first to have realized the splen-
dor of industry and its close connections with esthetics."

The United States is fortunate that Richard Neutra
(born in Vienna in 1892), himself one of the most bril-
liant of Austrian architects, has practiced in this country
since 1923. It can well be said that Neutra advanced
America's architectural thinking by a decade. Victor
Gruen (born in Vienna in 1903) has also contributed
very significantly to planning and building in the United
States. Bernard Rudofsky, too, has been a most stimulat-
ing import to the United States after a brief but brilliant
sojourn in Brazil. A little-known Austrian who remained at
home but who has had a world effect on building is
Ludwig Hatschek ( 1856- 1914): he invented asbestos
cement.

In spite of the fact that Austria was one of the early

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