Harry Seidler

Since the 1920s, Vienna has been a fertile location for many unique, international social housing projects. Many such complexes were designed by renowned modernist and contemporary architects. With his New Danube residential complex, the famed Australian architect Harry Seidler, who was born in Vienna, has set an important example for urban development and architecture. The book presents this complex of buildings that has been much heeded around the world, and illustrates the idea and development of social housing in Vienna.

The book places this innovative residential complex in the context of Vienna's history of social housing. Starting around 1900, it tells the story of Red Vienna with buildings such as the Karl-Marx-Hof or projects influenced by the Garden City movement, among them buildings constructed by architects such as Adolf Loos, Gerrit Rietveld, Josef Hoffmann or Richard Neutra. It continues by looking at post-1945 social housing and then Considers the innovative architecture of Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Herzog & de Meuron, Zaha Hadid or Norman Foster. Having examined historical and contemporary developments, the book gives detailed consideration to Harry Seidler's recently completed New Danube Housing, a complex of nearly 900 apartments built on a covered expressway along the Danube, A unique monograph that combines architectural history as well as current trends, this work is also a welcome addition to the literature on one of the most important architects working today.