Josef Hoffmann was an Austrian designer and architect, and co-founder of the Wiener Werkstätte, the Vienna Secession und the Österreichischer Werkbund. He was a key figure in Viennese Modernism.
Josef Hoffmann – a biography
Josef Hoffmann was born on 15 December 1870 in Pirnitz, formerly in Austria-Hungary, now part of the Czech Republic. He began his architectural studies at the Higher State Crafts School in Brno in 1887 and later continued at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
Hoffmann worked from 1896 at the architectural office of the leading architect and Vienna city planner Otto Koloman Wagner. By 1895, Hoffmann had already founded the ‘Siebener Club’ together with architect Joseph Maria Olbrich and artist Koloman Moser, and went on to establish the Vienna Sucession with both of them in 1897.
From 1899 to 1936, Hoffmann taught as professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. At the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, he was responsible for the design of the Vienna Sucession Hall. He also travelled with Moser through England, where he got to know Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
1903 saw Josef Hoffmann found the Wiener Werkstätte and produce numerous furniture designs. He became chief architect for the city of Vienna in 1920, and five years later designed the Austrian pavilion for the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. In 1932 he participated in the building of Vienna’s Werkbundsiedlung.
Josef Hoffmann’s No. 670 Sitzmaschine
Josef Hoffmann designed the No. 670 Sitzmaschine in 1905 for his Sanatorium Purkersdorf in Vienna, a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ or total work of art, uniting architectural construction and space with interior architecture and design. Some suggest that his No. 670 Sitzmaschine is influenced by Philip Webb’s Morris Chair. The armchair’s construction is noteworthy for its rational form and typifies the Wiener Werkstätte’s fusion of decorative and structural elements.
Josef Hoffmann’s Kubus Sofa
Josef Hoffmann designed the Kubus Sofa in 1910, as well as the Kubus armchair. Both pieces are characterised by strong geometric forms. Their resolutely cubist forms and leather upholstery make the pieces timeless classics. Hoffmann exhibited them at the International Exhibition in Buenos Aires to mark the centennial of Argentinian independence.
© by Architonic
