Josef Frank and Oskar Wlach

Architects Josef Frank and Oskar Wlach developed an overall concept for Villa Beer between 1929 and 1930, including the interior design and garden landscaping.

Their paths had already crossed in the 1920s as fellow students, in the Wiener Werkbund, the Vienna Circle, the Siedler movement and later also at ‘Haus & Garten’.

Prof. Dr. Josef Frank
15 July 1885 – 8 January 1967

Born in Baden bei Wien in 1885, Josef Frank studied architecture at the Vienna University of Technology from 1904–1908 under Professors Carl König and Max Fabiani. As early as mid-1910, before graduating with a doctorate in engineering, he was hired to design various exhibition spaces. Among other things, he designed home furnishings as well as exhibition furniture for the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne. These early interior designs made it clear that Frank had his own personal conception of modernism. He did not want to design architectural spaces bounded by the laws of symmetry and rhythm. Rather, he tried to fracture the connection between architecture and interior by placing pieces of furniture in the rooms seemingly at random, dispensing with paneling, instead using minimalist wall treatments that allowed the rooms to serve as more or less neutral containers.

1912 to 1932
Frank became a member of the German Werkbund and, in 1912, a founding member of the Austrian Werkbund, where he dealt intensively with the issue of workers’ housing and was an ardent advocate of the Siedler and garden city movements.

In 1913, he joined Oskar Wlach and skar Strnad’s studio collective, which existed until 1918. During these years, they built the Scholl and Strauss homes in Vienna and the Bunzl house in Ortmann, for example.

In 1919, Frank began teaching at the Vienna School of Applied Arts, continuing until 1926. In 1925, Frank founded the Haus und Garten furniture company together with Wlach and, in the beginning, Walter Sobotka. They went on to plan houses and apartment furnishings and to design and manufacture furniture, lamps, fabrics, and more. In 1927, Frank completed the Claeson house in Falsterbo, his first project in Sweden, the home country of his wife Anna Regina. That same year, Frank was the only Austrian invited to participate in the Stuttgart Werkbundsiedlung (Weißenhofsiedlung).

In 1929, he was hired by Julius and Margarete Beer to plan the Villa Beer. Frank designed an overall concept together with Wlach, including the interior and garden design. In 1931 he published his thoughts on the design of this house in the journal "Der Baumeister" in an essay titled “The House as Path and Place”. From 1930 to 1932, in parallel with the Villa Beer, the Werkbundsiedlung Wien was founded under Frank’s artistic direction.

Refuge in Sweden
The political situation and increasingly anti-Semitic tremors in Austria prompted Frank to emigrate to Sweden with his wife in 1933/34. In Stockholm, he started working with the renowned furniture and interior design company Svenskt Tenn. Due to a lack of architectural commissions, Frank focused almost exclusively on furniture and textile design from 1937 onward. His work for Svenskt Tenn brought him international fame, particularly for his fabric designs. His creativity had an enduring impact on Swedish design, and its influences can still be seen in the internationally recognized Scandinavian design style. Svenskt Tenn still produces Frank’s designs, the most important part of their collections to this day.
In 1960, Frank was conferred the City of Vienna Design Award and in 1965 the Grand Austrian State Prize for Architecture.

Josef Frank died in Stockholm in 1967.

In 2005, on the occasion of his 120th birthday, the ÖGFA – Austrian Society for Architecture mounted a plaque at Wiedner Hauptstrasse 64, 1040 Vienna, where he lived in a penthouse apartment from 1913–1934.

More information about Josef Frank: 
Architektenlexikon Österreich Josef Frank 
Nextroom – Josef Frank

Dr. Oskar Wlach
18. April 1881 to 16. August 1963

Oskar Wlach, one of the leading figures of the ‘Second Viennese Modernism’ movement of the interwar period, is somewhat unfairly overshadowed by his partner Josef Frank. According to the Austrian Architectural Encyclopaedia, Wlach and Oskar Strnad had already been working together for several years and had completed a number of joint projects before the slightly younger Josef Frank joined their studio partnership in 1913. Born 1881 in Vienna, he, like Josef Frank, studied at the Vienna University of Technology under Karl König. In 1906, he completed his studies with a dissertation on the early Renaissance, one of the first graduates of the university to receive a doctorate.

Haus & Garten
He then began working as a freelance architect in collaboration with his fellow student Oskar Strnad. Together, they participated in several prominent competitions and designed their first houses. A few years later (1913–1918), Josef Frank joined them. They were connected by their shared education, artistic positioning and Jewish heritage.

During the First World War, Wlach completed several projects in Istanbul, where he continued to work in the technical group of the military representative after the war. In 1919, he returned to Vienna and married Klari Haynal (née Krausz).

In the mid-1920s, Wlach and Frank founded the interior design company Haus & Garten, each holding a 50% stake. Wlach served as managing director. The extremely successful company produced countless home furnishings and was also known and loved for its designs for fabrics, furniture, garden furniture and garden landscaping. After 1934, when Frank had already emigrated to Sweden, Wlach continued to run ‘Haus & Garten’ on his own and also continued his work as an architect.

Refuge in the USA
In 1938, the company was Aryanised. Wlach and his wife managed to flee to Switzerland. After a stopover in London, they emigrated to the United States in 1939.

There, he occasionally furnished apartments, but the order situation was very poor. In the early 1950s, he unsuccessfully applied for restitution of the company ‘Haus & Garten’. All attempts to return to Austria to build on his earlier successes were also unsuccessful. He did not manage to gain a foothold as an architect in the USA.

Wlach died in 1963 at the age of 83 in a retirement home in New York.

More information about Oskar Wlach:
Architektenlexikon Österreich | Oskar Wlach
Nextroom | Oskar Wlach

Buildings by Frank and Wlach together

1913–1914 Haus Scholl, Vienna 19, Wildbrandtgasse 3

1914 Haus Strauß, Vienna 19, Wilbrandtgasse 11 

1923–1925 Winarsky-Hof, Vienna 20, Stromstrasse 36–38

1923 David Löbel House, interior and garden design, Vienna 13, Geylinggasse 13

1923-1924 Wiedenhofer-Hof, Wien 17, Zeilergasse 7-11

1929–1931 Villa Beer, Vienna 13, Wenzgasse 12 

1931–1932 Rosa Jochmann Hof Vienna 11, Simmeringer Hauptstrasse 142–150

1935 Haus Bunzl, Vienna 19, Chimanistraße 18

As well as numerous apartment and home interiors.

Further articles:
The Residents
More than a House