HOFFMANN, Josef
(b. 1870, Pirnitz, Moravia, d. 1956, Wien)

Westend Sanatorium: east façade

1904-05
Photo
Wiener Straße 60-70, Purkersdorf

The sanatorium in Purkersdorf, destined for a well-to-do clientele, was a flat-roofed, three-storey building that had all the discipline of classicism in its symmetry and proportioning but made no allusions to any historical models. The decoration was used very sparingly, and the architectural vocabulary was pared down to very few essential elements: planes, cubic and slablike elements, piers, and beam-and-slab ceilings of reinforced concrete. The result was an architectural statement so powerful in its clarity and restraint that it invites comparison with the most advanced work of such contemporary masters as Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright.

The building was restored in 1995.