Architect · Austria · 1934-2014
Hans Hollein Biography, Buildings and Best Books
Austrian architect and artist (1934-2014) who declared that “everything is architecture” and built the Abteiberg Museum and the Haas Haus. Pritzker Prize 1985.
Photo: unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Biography
Hans Hollein (1934-2014) was an Austrian architect, designer and artist and one of the key figures of postmodern architecture. His manifesto “Alles ist Architektur” (Everything is architecture) of 1968 widened architecture to include media and objects, and his buildings, from the tiny Retti Candle Shop in Vienna to the Abteiberg Museum in Mönchengladbach, combined luxury materials, wit and urban drama. He received the Pritzker Prize in 1985.
Vienna and America
Hollein was born in Vienna in 1934 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts under Clemens Holzmeister. In 1959 and 1960 he studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology and at the University of California, Berkeley, and travelled across the United States, meeting Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra.
Shops, galleries and manifestos
Back in Vienna he made his name with the Retti Candle Shop (1965), a jewel box of polished aluminium, and later with shops for Schullin. In New York he designed the Richard Feigen Gallery. His collages of aircraft carriers in landscapes and his writing for the magazine Bau made him a leading voice of radical architecture in the 1960s.
Museums and the city
The Städtisches Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach (1982) set galleries, terraces and a tower into a hillside and became a manifesto of the postmodern museum. It was followed by the Haas Haus opposite St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna (1990), the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt (1991) and Vulcania, the volcano park in Auvergne (2002).
Teaching and legacy
Hollein taught in Düsseldorf and at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, served as Austrian commissioner for the Venice Biennale and directed the 1996 Architecture Biennale. He died in Vienna in 2014.
Hans Hollein’s Masterpiece: Art, Architecture and the City
A new study of the Abteiberg Museum in Mönchengladbach that places Hollein’s best-known building within his art, his writing and his ideas about the city.
View on Amazon
Timeline
- 1934Born on 30 March in Vienna.
- 1956Graduates from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
- 1959Studies at IIT in Chicago and then at UC Berkeley.
- 1965Completes the Retti Candle Shop in Vienna.
- 1968Publishes the manifesto Alles ist Architektur.
- 1982Abteiberg Museum opens in Mönchengladbach.
- 1985Receives the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
- 1990Haas Haus opens in Vienna.
- 1991Museum of Modern Art opens in Frankfurt.
- 2014Dies on 24 April in Vienna.
Best Books on Hans Hollein
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Hans Hollein known for?
Hans Hollein is known for the Abteiberg Museum in Mönchengladbach, the Haas Haus in Vienna, the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt, the Retti Candle Shop and his manifesto Everything is architecture. He won the Pritzker Prize in 1985.
What does “everything is architecture” mean?
In his 1968 manifesto Hollein argued that architecture is not limited to buildings: media, objects, environments and even a pill could be architecture.
Is Hans Hollein a postmodern architect?
Yes. Hollein is one of the leading figures of postmodern architecture, known for rich materials, historical references and theatrical urban buildings.
What is the best book on Hans Hollein?
Eva Branscome’s Hans Hollein’s Masterpiece: Art, Architecture and the City (Lund Humphries, 2026) studies the Abteiberg Museum and his ideas.
When did Hans Hollein win the Pritzker Prize?
He received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1985.
