The Austrian Postal Savings Bank building (

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a ...

: ''Österreichische Postsparkasse'') is a famous building in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, designed and built by the architect Otto Wagner. The building is regarded as an important work of

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (german: Wiener Secession; also known as ''the Union of Austrian Artists'', or ''Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs'') is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austri ...

, branch of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

. It was constructed between 1904 and 1906 using then completely new reinforced concrete, and was opened on 17 December 1906. Extension was added between 1910 and 1912. The building houses the headquarters of the ''Österreichische Postsparkasse'' (P.S.K.) bank, formerly the ''k.k. Postsparcassen-Amt'' (Imperial-Royal Postal Savings Office). It is located at Georg-Coch-Platz 2, in the first district

Innere Stadt The Innere Stadt (; Central Bavarian: ''Innare Stod'') is the 1st municipal district of Vienna () located in the center of the Austrian capital. The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expanded in 1850, the I ...

, next to the Ringstraße boulevard.

Exterior

Up to eight stories high, the building occupies an entire

city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...

. The façade is covered with square marble slabs and aluminum applications reminiscent of a money storage. Granite slabs are attached to the lower and upper levels. The rivets with which the marble cladding seems to be fixed to the wall are purely ornamental and articulate the façade. Since the approximately 10 cm thick plates are kept in place by plaster, the rivets do not have supporting function.Christa Veigl: Otto Wagners Postsparkasse und ihre „Fleckerlpatschen“. Rezeptionsgeschichte einer Plattenbefestigung, in Wiener Geschichtsblätter The use of marble makes the maintenance and cleaning of the facade very easy and inexpensive, important functional element in Wagner's design. Wagner greatly valued the aluminum, material perfected by Austrian chemist

Carl Josef Bayer Carl Josef Bayer (also Karl Bayer, March 4, 1847 – October 4, 1904) was an Austrian chemist who invented the Bayer process of extracting alumina from bauxite, essential to this day to the economical production of aluminium. Bayer had been worki ...

for industrial production. He used the material not only for the rivets, but also for other decorative elements on the outside and inside of the building, such as the

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cul ...

columns and the central heating fans. The 4.3 meters high sculptures, for the first time made of cast aluminum and located on the

attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean ...

of the building are work of Wagner long time collaborator

Othmar Schimkowitz Othmar Schimkowitz (2 October 1864 in Tárts, Komárom County – 24 April 1947 in Graz) was a Hungarian-born architectural sculptor who worked on the greatest landmarks of the Vienna Secession. Life Schimkowitz studied at the Academy of Fin ...

. The glass windows are partly a work of

Leopold Forstner Leopold Forstner (2 November 1878 in Bad Leonfelden, Upper Austria – 5 November 1936 in Stockerau) was an artist who was part of the Viennese Secession movement, working in the Jugendstil style, focusing particularly on the mosaic as a form. B ...

Interior

Postsparkasse Otto Wagner Beamtenstiege 2

Through the main entrance at Georg-Coch-Platz the visitor ascends a flight of stairs to the grand ''Kassenhalle'', where customer services are located. The main hall is thus effectively on the first floor. The hall is designed like an atrium, with a large glass

skylight A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes. History Open ...

allowing natural light to enter the heart of the building at all times. Natural light is not used only for stylistic reasons, but also to reduce the cost of electric lighting. Even the floor of the main hall is constructed of glass tiles, allowing natural light to reach further down to the floor below, where the

Post Office box A post office box (commonly abbreviated as P.O. box, or also known as a postal box) is a uniquely addressable lockable box located on the premises of a post office. In some regions, particularly in Africa, there is no door to door delivery ...

es and mail sorting rooms are located. Wagner kept decoration in the main hall minimal, using only glass and polished steel as materials. The decorative effect is created by the simple but elegant use of the material itself. The frosted glass skylight is pierced by steel

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...

s, their slim design making them as unobstructive to the falling light as possible. The hall is one of Otto Wagner's famous works, and one of the finest examples of the Viennese Secession. The building's office space is divided according to the axis of the outside windows, again making use of natural light as much as possible. The interior walls are non-load-bearing, and can therefore be re-arranged according to need, a feature that has become standard in modern office buildings.

Current state

Spared any damage during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the building is still in its original state and since 2005 includes a museum devoted to its creator, Otto Wagner.

References

Literature

* Otto Wagner. ''Die österreichische Postsparkasse''. Falter Verlag, Wien. 1996. * Carl E. Schorske. '' Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture''. Vintage, London. 1980.

External links

Otto Wagner Museum located within the Austrian Postal Savings Bank

Virtual tour through the building
{{Vienna Secession Art Nouveau architecture in Vienna Commercial buildings completed in 1906 Buildings and structures in Innere Stadt Art Nouveau commercial buildings Bank buildings in Austria Otto Wagner buildings 1906 establishments in Austria Postal savings system