Josef Frank and Oskar Wlach

Architects Josef Frank and Oskar Wlach developed a comprehensive overall concept for Villa Beer in 1929 to 1930, including the interior design and garden.

The young men’s paths first crossed in the 1920s, as fellow students, members of the Vienna Werkbund, the Wiener Kreis, and the settlers’ movement. They later founded and ran the Haus & Garten interior decoration company together.

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

Born in 1885 in Baden near Vienna, Josef Frank studied architecture at the Technical University in Vienna from 1904 to 1908, under Carl König and Max Fabiani. As early as mid-1910, even before completing his doctorate (Dr. techn.), he was being commissioned to design exhibition spaces. Among other projects, he designed exhibition furniture for the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne and various home interiors. Frank’s early interior designs already made it clear that he had his own distinctive understanding of Modernism. In his designs, he sought to dissolve the tight bond between architecture and interior decoration by scattering furniture seemingly at random within the rooms, dispensing with paneling, and opting instead for minimalist wall treatments that allowed spaces to function as more or less neutral containers.

1912 to 1932 
In 1912, Frank became a member of the German Werkbund and a founding member of the Austrian Werkbund, as he was deeply engaged with the issue of worker housing and a fervent advocate of the settlement and garden city movements. In 1913, he joined the studio partnership of Oskar Wlach and Oskar Strnad, which existed until 1918. During these years, they realized projects such as the Scholl and Strauss homes in Vienna and the Bunzl house in Ortmann.

In 1919, Frank began teaching at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule), a position he held until 1926. In 1925, Frank, Wlach, and in the beginning also Walter Sobotka founded the Haus & Garten home design company. The company planned buildings and residential interiors, as well as designing and producing furniture, lamps, textiles, and more.

In 1927, Frank realized the Claeson House in Falsterbo, his first project in Sweden, home country of his wife, Anna Regina. That same year, Frank became the only Austrian invited to participate in the Stuttgart Werkbund Estate (Weissenhof Estate).

He was commissioned by Julius and Margarethe Beer to design the Villa Beer in 1929. Together with Wlach, Frank developed a holistic concept that included the furniture and garden design. His thoughts on the design of this house were published in the magazine Der Baumeister in 1931 under an article titled “The House as Path and Place.” From 1930 to 1932, in parallel to Villa Beer, the Vienna Werkbund Estate was also realized under Frank’s artistic direction.

Flight to Sweden

The political situation and the increasingly anti-Semitic climate in Austria prompted Frank and his wife to emigrate to Sweden in 1933/1934. In Stockholm, he began collaborating with the renowned furniture and interior design firm Svenskt Tenn.

Not having any architectural commissions, from 1937 onward Frank focused almost exclusively on designing furniture and textiles. He gained international recognition through his work for Svenskt Tenn, and for his textile designs in particular.

His designs have had a lasting influence on the Swedish aesthetic, with his influence still evident in the internationally recognized Scandinavian design tradition. To this day, Svenskt Tenn continues to produce Frank’s designs as a key part of its collections. In 1960, Frank was awarded the City of Vienna Prize for Design, and in 1965 the Grand Austrian State Prize for Architecture.

Josef Frank died in Stockholm in 1967.

In 2005, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of Frank’s birthday, a commemorative plaque was installed by the ÖGFA—the Austrian Architecture Society—on the building at Wiedner Hauptstraße 64, 1040 Vienna, where he lived in a top-floor apartment from 1913 to 1934.

Further links and a list of works by Josef Frank: 
Architektenlexikon Österreich Josef Frank 
Nextroom – Josef Frank

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

Oskar Wlach, a key protagonist of the “second wave of Vienna Modernism” during the interwar period, stands somewhat unjustly in the shadow of his partner Josef Frank. As the Austrian Lexicon of Architects notes, he and Oskar Strnad had already collaborated for several years and realized multiple projects together before the slightly younger Josef Frank joined their studio partnership in 1913.

Born in Vienna in 1881, Wlach studied—like Josef Frank—at the Vienna University of Technology (Technischen Hochschule Wien) under Karl König. In 1906, he completed his studies with a dissertation on the Early Renaissance, making him one of the first graduates of the technical college to receive a doctoral degree.

Haus & Garten
After graduating, he began working as a freelance architect in collaboration with his fellow student Oskar Strnad. Together they participated in several prominent competitions and realized their first houses. They were joined a few years later (1913–1918), by Josef Frank. The three were connected by their shared education, artistic approaches, and Jewish heritage.

During the First World War, Wlach carried out several projects in Istanbul, where he continued working even after the war with the technical group of the military commissioner. In 1919, he returned to Vienna and married Klari Haynal (née Krausz).

In the mid-1920s, Wlach and Frank founded the furnishing company “Haus & Garten,” each with a 50 percent share. Wlach served as managing director. The highly successful company produced countless residential interiors and became loved and renowned for its textile, furniture, garden furniture, and garden layout designs.

After 1934, when Frank had already emigrated to Sweden, Wlach continued to run Haus & Garten on his own, also pursuing his work as an architect.

Flight to the USA 
In 1938, the firm was aryanized. Wlach and his wife first managed to escape to Switzerland. After a stopover in London, they emigrated to the USA in 1939.

There, Wlach occasionally furnished apartments, but commissions were scarce. In the early 1950s, he filed a restitution claim for the company Haus & Garten, but it was denied. All attempts to return to Austria and build on his former successes likewise proved unsuccessful. He was unable to ever fully establish himself as an architect in the USA. 

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

Further links and a list of works by Oskar Wlach:
Architektenlexikon Österreich | Oskar Wlach
Nextroom | Oskar Wlach

Joint Projects

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

And many more interior designs for apartments and houses.

More articles:
The Residents
More than a House