Max Fabiani

Designs in Vienna include the Portois & Fix office building> (1897-1900),

Fabiani, Max, b. Kobdil (Croatia), April 29, 1865, d. Gorica (Slovenia), Aug. 12, 1962, architect, pupil of Otto Wagner.

In the facade of the Kohlmarkt Artaria House (1900) Fabiani goes one step further and completely strips the wall of any ornamentation. Even though Fabiani's roots in the traditional technique of ornamentation are seen in the treatment of all other elements of the house (such as the bay window, cantilevered cornices, and so on) his unadorned wall, free of any additional layer of meaning, could be seen as a precursor of the wall of the Looshaus on the Michaelerplatz ten years later. 

More works: the Urania (1909/10); participated in the construction of the magnificent city railway stations at Karlsplatz (later transformed into a gallery and a coffee-house) and designed the Gutenberg monument at Lugeck (1900).

Foto: Karolinsky-Archive