In December 1857, Emperor Franz Joseph I decided to abandon the ditches, the wall, and the fortification of the inner city of Vienna. Instead, he ordered the construction of a boulevard that would also replace the old glacis (the former moat area). As early as 1858 an urban planning competition was held. 85 projects were submitted but only 30 projects have survived and embeds it in a larger historical and urban context.
Ever since my introduction to the Vienna Ringstrasse as an urban design precedent I’ve been interested in researching all of the entries to the competition. Recently I discovered a book titled Der Wettbewerb our Wiener Ringstrasse, by Harald R. Stühlinger. Stühlinger covers the history of the Ringstrasse in depth, albeit the text is in German. In this commentary I will not go into the great detail of the competition. I will be illustrating the area developed in city plans and maps. Showing the before, as many of the competition submissions I could locate, and how the Ringstrasse appeared in plan once completed. Towards the end I’ll then present a comparative analysis of the final eight chosen projects, a design by Aldof Loos, and the Ringstrasse as-built.
City Plans Pre Vienna Ringstrasse
To begin, the following city plans depict Vienna pre developed Ringstrasse, and are shown in chronological order by date.
This next image represents the area that was considered the design site.
Competition Submissions for the Vienna Ringstrasse Development
As mentioned, originally there were 85 submissions. The following are approximately all the submissions in existence today. When possible, the projects are shown in chronological order by project number.
These next eight projects were chosen as the finalist.
The wining project by Ludwig Förster
Analysis
The Austrian architect Adolf Loos wasn’t quite satisfied with the Ringstrasse results he saw in 1912. In an urban design exercise Loos sketched an alternate plan for the Vienna Ringstrasse.
The above illustrations show a comparison of the open spaces for each of the eight final projects, Adolf Loos’ design, and with the last drawing being the as-built condition of 1914.
The projects are as follows:
- 01) Project by Martion Kink
- 02) Project by Eduard van der Nüll & August von Sicardsburg
- 03) Project by Friedrich August von Stache
- 04) Project by K.K. Hof
- 05) Project by Ludwig Zettl
- 06) Project by Moritz Löhr
- 07) Project by Peter Joseph Lenne
- 08) Project by Ludwig Föster
- 09) Project by Adolf Loos 1912
- 10) Vienna Ringstrasse as built 1914
Note the sizes of the open spaces in each of the final eight projects, versus the similarity of open spaces in Adolf Loos’ project and the actual as built spaces. Loos’ and the as built Ringstrasse form a neckless of spaces, shown in yellow, along the blue strand of ring-street.
If you’d like to do further research on the 1857 Competition for the Vienna Ringstrasse I highly recommend the following book Der Wettbewerb our Wiener Ringstrasse, by Harald R. Stühlinger,
and the research website of the city of Vienna, Stadt Wien.
As a final note, there are many aspects of these projects that possibly deserve further investigation…
- An example, the as-built project doesn’t seem to have worked with any of the winning project by Ludwig Förster. Is the as built project a conglomeration of the submissions, and if so which parts were used?
- I’m intrigued with the project by Georg Günther, where he drops a rectilinear grid onto the site. Did Günther study the Manhattan plan of 1811? (Additionally, see the Manhattan scheme in the Blackwell Peninsula Project by Koetter/Kim)
- There’s also the third submission by a Design Group Known as A.L.M., which seems to be the only project of 1857 that does not introduce large open spaces. This project is similar to Loos’ and the as built Ringstrasse. In that it also forms a neckless of spaces.
I’d be interested in all of your thoughts and comments on these projects.
Thank you for taking the time to read this entry.
C.G.
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