Vienna (OTS) – “With Heinz Tesar, Austria has lost a great architectural artist who helped shape the architectural identity of this city with iconic, memorable, light-filled buildings – and, above all, that made life in them valuable,” emphasized Mayor Michael Ludwig on Friday. “Heinz Tesar said, ‘If you don’t love, you shouldn’t build,’ because he was convinced that architecture can make a difference, even make people happier. And so he not only built buildings on a human scale, but for people, above all the Biberdeckenweg settlement (with Carl Pruscha, Otto Häuselmayer, etc.), which marked a departure in Vienna’s social housing construction and which received the Austrian Builders’ Prize in 1986. The Donaucity Church (2000), which stands out from the high-rise buildings on the Donauplatte in its black chrome steel cladding, also provides the community with a bright meeting room. My deepest condolences go out to his family and loved ones.”
Kaup-Hasler: Groundbreaking light space in the service of the visual arts
“The death of Heinz Tesar, who further developed the Austrian architectural language of classical modernism with buildings of impressive functionality and at the same time memorable aesthetics, is a painful loss for Austria,” says City Councilor for Culture Veronica Kaup-Hasler. “Tesar, who studied with Roland Rainer and was fascinated by Le Corbusier’s architectural philosophy, understood architecture as a powerful work of art and, as a teacher, has influenced generations of aspiring architects internationally over three decades. Heinz Tesar was a unique architectural artist who drew and painted himself and who, with the former Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg, created a groundbreaking light space in the service of the visual arts. My condolences go out to his family, friends and companions.”
Heinz Tesar has received numerous awards, including the City of Vienna Prize for Architecture in 1983, the Austrian Builders’ Prize in 1986, 1988 and 1994 and the Grand Austrian State Prize for Architecture in 2011.
Questions & Contact:
Bernhard Muttenthaler
Media spokesman for the mayor of Vienna
+43 1 4000 81857
bernhard.muttenthaler@wien.gv.at
Anne Katrin Feßler
Media spokesperson StRin Mag.a Veronica Kaup-Hasler
+43 1 4000 – 811 91
annekatrin.fessler@wien.gv.at