Vienna...4th July.

Today was to be a gentle stroll in the city.... I am here for the week so no rush....

My first target was the Post Office, close to my apartment.... For those not interested in architecture, this wasn't' to buy a few stamps, but to visit the Postal Savings Bank building designed by Otto Wagner and opened at the beginning of the 20C. 

Walking over the Wienfluss (not to be confused with the Donaukanal), making sure not to walk on the bike lane in the pavement.. friendly bell rings to warn to get out the way... not easy initially to work out the lane..

On the other side of the river.. (see pictures later below) I noticed an enormous cantilevered platform straddling the river boulevard ... and just finishing above the river. I measured this at about 14 metres. It had seemingly no purpose other than to link a garden behind with the river

but recognising the boulevard by inserting a circular hole to allow a tree to grow through... Clearly the tree was planted as part of the cantilever construction.

The reason became clear walking past the entrance to the adjacent building; this was the University of Applied Arts Vienna. The original building faces the Ringstrasse and originally known as the Kunstgewerbeschule (Vienna School of Arts and Crafts).  The building fronting the Wienfluss is a modern wing that encloses the garden and is predominately houses the architecture school. 

I wandered in to look and asking the receptionist if I could see the architecture school he waved me upstairs... 

All the faculties in the university...architecture school to the left...

The main stair in the architecture  wing; simple but perfectly executed design. Not  possible to design this in the UK due to building regulations........

I was able to wander through the studios, separate studios on each floor.. each studio designed to reflect the aims and purpose of the studio but importantly accessible space to present work to the wider school and university. Final presentations completed in June but there were a few students in the building. They seemed unfazed by me walking through the studios; surely proof of the desire to be accessible to a wider audience.

Hani Rashid's studio

It looked a wonderful place to study...according to Wikipedia, there are over 70 nationalities studying in the university; 60% Austrian but 40% from other European and other countries.

Walking on, I crossed the Ringstrasse and reached the Post Office building, set back from the Ringstasse; its position off the boulevard one of the reasons why the new architecture was allowed...

On the opposite side of the boulevard is the archetypal late 19C imperial building, the Regierungsgebaude, the former ministry of war building now occupied by other government departments, that Adolf Loos was so dismissive of...

Walking up to the building, now a museum to both the savings bank and to Otto Wagner..

A curiosity in front of the Regierungsgebaude.. wilted... 

Austrian Postal Savings Bank:

This is one of the most important buildings in Vienna, the move away from neo-renaissance architecture, still being built at the time, to reflect the contemporary era of technology and buildings fit for their purpose. 

This building is a key manifestation of the Viennese Secessionist movement, part of the wider Art Nouveau movement.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/architecture-20c/a/wagner-postal-savings-bank

The reception hall leading up to the main hall.. 

A glass roof was constructed above the original in 2010 to project this structure below

Aluminium clad columns and original lighting

Aluminium ventilation outlets...

Glass block floors

Otto Wagner chose of a small use of materials (aluminium, marble, linoleum, plaster) that were durable and reduced the level of maintenance required for his client. There is a quote in the museum that reflects his philosophy.... also natural light, for the visitors as well as those working in the building....

    The museum is located at the rear of the building in the later post office entrance..

All furniture was designed by Otto Wagner's studio. I liked that an ottoman was designed for the director offices. I/m sure modern CEO's would secretly like this too....

Open plan offices... not a new workplace invention.......
The rear of the building probably expresses how 'modern' this building was when constructed compared with its neighbour, a typical example of a building being constructed at the time...

The large roof overhang protected the face materials. The use of the visible fixings to hold each marble panel to the facade allowed the material to be thinner, save costs and be installed faster... (Wikipedia in their article is wrong in their description of this..)
The museum suggests that the Viennese architectural establishment was happy that Otto Wagner won this competition as it would keep him busy from designing other buildings on the Ringstrasse.. in their opinion their domain.. 

Opposite the rear entrance, someone was digging a huge hole....

On the Road to Vienna...3rd July


A straight forward run from Budapest to Vienna, leaving back over the chain bridge into Pest and then quickly onto the M1 to Vienna. 

Signs to Bratislava when getting closer to the boarder made me realise how close I was to Vienna when staying in Bratislava; 80km (50 miles.).

Passing through the redundant boarder crossing with kiosks empty (although there were boarder police pulling vehicles over for inspection.. I wasn't deemed worthy for this..), you drive through miles of wind turbines. Driving through, rather than driving near the farms, as in England, was quite impressive. 
Austria is trying to achieve its stated aim of being 100% reliant on renewables by 2030.. by mostly by hydro-electric power.

Arriving into the centre of Vienna, I was struck by who quiet it was in the district I am staying in. mostly likely tomorrow when I start exploring this will change...

I was told to move my car immediately into an underground car park. Probably not surprising but the Viennese authorities are very efficient in fining rogue parked cars.. 

The top of my shoulders are suffering from the open air swim in Budapest..sun burnt......

My apartment is in the Weissgerber area of central Vienna.. just a short walk to the old centre...

Budapest...2nd July.

After a haircut and sorting out the car, I decided to go back to the Szechenyi thermal baths for a swim.  
I chose a cabin that is electronically locked with a wrist band.. It all worked really smoothly. It isn't cheap but if you are there for a day then it is ok.. I also bought a swimming hat, being told I needed one at the reception for swimming. 

Arriving out into the main open area, there is a central swimming pool, probably 40 metres in length and two side pools similar to 'activity' centre pools. Both of these were like writhing farmed salmon cages of people, while the centre pool was virtually empty. The reason; you could only swim in the large pool with a hat on...

It was odd, given that 95% of 'bathers' could not use the main pool area. It was possible to buy hats in the facility.. virtually no one did...

A final evening walk in the centre..
Lots of international tourists; American, Chinese, German, English..

The bottom of Andrassy Avenue

Early night and off to Vienna in the morning......

Budapest...1st July.


Walking through the centre of Budapest.... 
Many buildings have either been, or are being, repaired, cleaned maintaining the original detailing..

add  more..

But...this building, now in construction, will dominate all the buildings around it. Its choice of cladding, with small bronze fins will not be clear as the board image but dark as the cladding sample panel below.. There are many buildings like this being constructed in cities throughout Europe, I just feel its design could have been more contextual, reflecting its location in the heart of Budapest. The choice of materials is to do with costs and speed of construction but there is no link to Budapest. Contemporary buildings do not need to be all glass.

The cranes give the final height of the building away..

The quality on this test panel isn't good.. but it does remind me of a building being constructed in London.....

Opposite this site, there is this 30's building... a modernist facade that goes off piste at the top... as though the designers wanted to capture some of the spirit of the late 19C buildings. The curved glass bay windows would have been very expensive to make...

I walked over to the Pest side of the Danube... so much quieter 

Hugging the shade...

Semmelweis Museum

Reaching the Szechenyi Chain Bridge, it became much busier. Normally the funicular railway located in front of the bridge takes tourists up to the castle.. but for some reason wasn't working on a Monday

Folkstone has one of these leading from the beach to the Leas.. but it used water to create a balance between the cars going up and down.....

The Parliament building 

I decided to get the metro back to save my foot..... and to get out of the sun.. now reaching 37 degrees...

Budapest...30th June

My first day back in Budapest..

A quiet day to rest my operated foot; now a little swollen.. I decided to take Metro 1, the line under Andrassy Avenue,  to the City Park. This park was originally outside the confines of the city but became a key public space of the new 19th century Budapest, made the joint capital city of the Austrian Hungarian Empire, with Vienna. 

Walking out of station Szechenyi furdo, right in the centre of the park, I walked towards a 19C classical building.. seemingly scaled to the park...

     
An entrance to the thermal led up the stairs and then through the window I saw this...

An enormous open air lido... The facade I walked to is only the side facade. The main building is scaled like this....

The main reception entrance.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sz%C3%A9chenyi_thermal_bath

To see more, you need to buy access into the main building.. let's see about this tomorrow.

I wonder in 2000 years will someone re-discover ruins of these baths, that match those of Caracalla.....


Close by is the Vajdahunyad Castle. Initial impressions that it may be original but the picturest composition gives it away.

It was constructed as part of the Hungarian Millennial Exhibition to represent 1000 years of Hungarian architectural history. 
The exhibition was laid in the new park, connected to the recently constructed metro under Andrassy Avenue. 
While the main exhibition buildings were removed at the close, this group of buildings, built on a empty island in the lake of a former tributary of the Danube, was left; the main neo-baroque building becoming the Hungarian agricultural museum,

Due to cost reasons and the temporary nature of the complex, the main load bearing frame was built from timber and then clad with brick and rendered. A couple of years later the whole collection of buildings was demolished and re-built to the same design replacing the rotting timber frames with stone..

While there was some criticism of the literal use of past architectural styles, the public loved it and it became one of the cities most popular destinations..no doubt helped by having the thermal baths close by....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajdahunyad_Castle

In the first construction the arced gatehouse was timber clad; this change to stone was one of the few amendments to the original construction 

The 'Romanesque' church..

The agricultural museum

Inside the museum entrance hall..

Anonymous 

There is also a statute of Bela Lugosi in the castle..... Bauhaus again....