The coloured façade
Blocks of colour, mismatched columns, trees out of windows — the least Viennese building in Vienna.
C.Stadler/Bwag — CC BY-SA 4.0 · C.Stadler/Bwag — CC BY-SA 4.0 · P e z i — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Martin Abegglen from Bern, Switzerland — CC BY-SA 2.0
A municipal housing block designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser in 1985 as an open declaration of war on the straight line: undulating floors, façades broken into coloured squares, no two columns alike, and trees growing from inside the flats and out through the windows. His argument was that the straight line is an architectural "godlessness" and that a tenant has the right to alter the façade around their own window. The result looks like a child's drawing executed with complete architectural seriousness — and it remains social housing where ordinary people live today. Which gives the one rule that matters: this is someone's home, not a monument. You cannot go in, photograph through windows, or linger in the entrance. You look from outside, take your picture, and cross to Hundertwasser Village opposite — a commercial building in the same style with shops, a café and famously designed toilets.
Blocks of colour, mismatched columns, trees out of windows — the least Viennese building in Vienna.
The same style but open to the public — you can walk its sloping passages for free.
In the building opposite you walk on deliberately undulating ground — "an uneven floor restores human balance," as its designer put it.
Kegelgasse, Vienna
KunstHausWienA nineteenth-century furniture factory that Hundertwasser redesigned entirely as5 minutes walk4.5
MAK – Museum of Applied ArtsThe Museum of Applied Arts: founded in 1863 as continental Europe's first design12 minutes walk4.4
PraterIt was a closed imperial hunting ground until Emperor Joseph II opened it to the12 minutes walk4.7
StadtparkThe first public park the city of Vienna opened for its residents, in 1862, afte13 minutes walk4.7
Wiener RiesenradThe wheel that became Vienna's emblem on covers and stamps: built in 1897 for th13 minutes walk4.6Worth twenty minutes if you're already on this side of town or heading to Kunst Haus Wien. Not worth a dedicated cross-city trip on a tight schedule.
No. The building is entirely residential with no show apartment. The closest you get is the Village opposite and Kunst Haus Wien, designed by the same artist and open to visitors.