ART NOUVEAU DANUBE

Art Nouveau Architecture in the Danube Region

Project management, MAK: Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, Head, MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection/Archive; Project assistant: Aline Müller

Sustainable protection and promotion of Art Nouveau heritage in the Danube Region

The focus of this EU project (1 January 2017 – 30 June 2019) has been the Art Nouveau architecture of the Danube region. In the course of the last two-and-a-half years, through numerous activities and events we have succeeded in bringing the region’s hitherto little-known Art Nouveau heritage to the attention of a broad public.
The project explored four major topics: urban planning, conservation issues, restoration measures, and the digital agenda. As one of nine participating institutions from all over Europe, the MAK thus had the opportunity of conducting a broad expert survey of its valuable and extensive holdings from this artistic period.

The results have been presented to the public via two digital tools: the architecture databank Art Nouveau Danube and the web app mobile Art Nouveau Danube. Thus in Vienna the works of architects Otto Prutscher, Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffmann, Oskar Strnad, Karl Bräuer, Josef Frank, and the Werkstatt Niedermoser, among others—architects whose legacy has been completely reprocessed and digitalized within the framework of ART NOUVEAU DANUBE—can be explored. The book OTTO PRUTSCHER: Universal Designer of Viennese Modernism, published as part of this project, offers insights into the many-faceted oeuvre of this artist.

A main goal of this initiative has been to encourage knowledge transfer between the partner countries and to lay the foundations for a communal network of experts—a network intended to remain in place after the project’s completion. This goal has been achieved, amongst other things through the establishment of a communally developed experts’ databank, as well as discipline-specific training programs. In Austria, these have been realized in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Monuments Office.

As Austrian partner, the MAK plays a central role in bundling and disseminating the project’s results, thus taking an active part in protecting and sustainably promoting the legacy of art nouveau in the Danube region.

Project management, MAK: Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, Head, MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection/Archive
Project assistant: Aline Müller

Project's Results

Architecture databank >>
Experts’ databank >>
Web app >>
The app is available for both Android und iOS (“mAND”).

Financed via the EU’s Interreg Danube Transnational Programme
Project co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA)

Art Nouveau Kick-off Conerence, 7.3.2017, MAK-Library and Works on Paper Collection © MAK/Mona Heiß

Schemerlbridge, Nussdorf Weir and Lock Complex, 1894-98 © MAK/Kristina Satori and Mona Heiß

Art Nouveau Kick-off Conerence, 07.03.2017, MAK-Library and Works on Paper Collection © MAK/Mona Heiß

Nussdorf Weir and Lock Complex, 1894-98 © MAK/Kristina Satori und Mona Heiß

Vienna urban railway station Stadtpark, detail view of the cornice, 1894-1899 © MAK/Kristina Satori and Mona Heiß

Sluice House - Kaiserbad Barrage, 1906/07 © MAK/Kristina Satori and Mona Heiß

ART NOUVEAU DANUBE

Project's Results

MAK Collection

Library and Works on Paper Collection

Research

ART NOUVEAU 2